AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NFW  YORK  •    BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •    L»ALLAS 
ATLANTA  •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


AN  APPEAL  TO 
CONSCIENCE 

America's  Code  of  Caste 
A  Disgrace  to  Democracy 


BY 
KELLY  MILLER 

Dean  of  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
of  Howard  University,  Washington 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1920 

All  rights  reserved 


E 

tot 


COPYBIOHT,    1918 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
Set  up  and  elcctrotyped.     Published  June,  1918. 


TO 
RIGHT  MINDED  AMERICA 


S101S8 


"Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood, 
The  civil  slander  and  the  spite; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right, 
Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good." 


INTRODUCTION 

PROFESSOR  MILLER  raises  in  this  book 
the  question  to  which  a  solution  has 
never  yet  been  found.  How  is  it  pos 
sible  to  reconcile  in  the  United  States., 
of  America  a  system  of  discrimina 
tions  against  a  race  which  counts  a 
tenth  of  the  population,  with  the  great 
national  principles  of  equality  of  op 
portunity  and  civil  and  political  rights 
for  the  remaining  nine-tenths?  The 
most  candid  and  sympathetic  reader 
may  therefore  find  some  of  the  au 
thor's  positions  out  of  focus  with 
previous  observations.  For  instance, 
while  cordially  appreciating  the  work 
and  its  spirit,  it  is  not  essential  to  ac-, 
cept  the  author's  dictum  that  "a  physi 
cal  and  spiritual  identity  of  all  peoples 
occupying  common  territory  is  a  log 
ical  necessity  of  thought."  The  book 
is  written  with  excellent  temper  and 


INTRODUCTION 

an  admission  of  difficulties  which  are 
very  deep  seated  if  not  irremovable. 
The  main  thesis  is  a  protest  against  the 
application  of  one  standard  to  black 
men  and  another  to  white  men.  That 
such  a  discrimination  exists  is  clear, 
and  the  evil  consequences  are  well  set 
forth. 

The  chapter  on  Lawlessness  is  a 
just  though  spirited  protest  against 
lynching,  an  offence  which  does  the 
white  race  ten  times  as  much  harm  as 
the  negroes,  for  it  brutalizes  the  law- 
making  and  law-applying  section  of 
the  population.  It  thrusts  down  the 
white  farmer  or  townsman  or  working- 
man  to  a  level  below  that  of  the  worst 
negro  criminal,  because  the  lyncher 
glories  in  his  crime.  The  chapter  on 
Segregation  exposes  the  brutality  and 
uselessness  of  Jim  Crow  Laws  and 
might  go  further  by  pointing  out  that 
there  is  never  any  segregation  of  ne 
gro  purchasers  who  have  the  money  to 
buy  from  white  salesmen  and  store 
keepers. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  main  thesis  is  summed  up  in  the 
chapter  on  Righteousness.  Professor 
Miller  does  not  in  the  least  deny  that 
the  presence  of  the  two  races  side  by 
side  brings  difficulties  and  jealousies 
for  which  neither  side  is  primarily  re 
sponsible.  What  he  does  insist  upon 
is  that  the  principles  of  justice,  im 
partiality  and  fair  dealing,  the  rela 
tion  of  morals  to  conduct,  rightly  ap 
ply  as  much  to  men  of  negro  blood  as 
to  other  races,  and  should  especially 
be  observed  by  the  whites  in  relation 
to  the  negroes.  It  all  goes  back  to 
Emerson's  great  saying,  "If  I  put  a 
chain  upon  a  slave,  I  fix  the  other  end 
around  my  own  neck."  The  book  is 
a  powerful  appeal  to  the  dominant 
race  to  protect  itself  by  a  fair  treat 
ment  of  the  unorganized  race.  As  the 
author  puts  it,  "Prosperity  will  take  no 
pride  in  the  deeds  of  this  day  which 
deprive  the  humblest  citizen  of  his 
human  rights  in  order  that  others  may 
enjoy  a  larger  measure  of  easement." 

Kelly  Miller  is  a  disputant  of  proof. 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  not  necessary  to  agree  with  every 
thing  he  says  in  order  to  find  common 
ground.  Some  arguments  and  some 
illustrations  might  be  left  out  without 
weakening  his  case.  The  merit  of  the 
book  is  its  vigorous  and  well  stated 
appeal  to  reason,  a  call  for  a  just  ap 
plication  of  the  moral  principles  of 
which  America  is  proud.  It  is  a  log 
ical,  human,  reasonable  appeal  to 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  and  of 
democracy,  of  which  the  nation  is 
so  proud.  Its  motto  might  well  be 
"Physician  heal  thyself." 

ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

RACE  CONTACT 13 

LAWLESSNESS      .......  29 

SEGREGATION 52 

NEGRO  PATRIOTISM  AND  DEVOTION     .  68 

RIGHTEOUSNESS  87 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CON 
SCIENCE 


CHAPTER  I 

RACE    CONTACT 

THE  contact^  Adjustment  and  'attri 
tion  of  the  various  races  of  mankind 
constitute  the  gravest  pirohJerr/  of  mod 
ern  civilization.  This  problem  is  not 
limited  by  local  or  national  bounda 
ries;  is  not  confined  to  continental  or 
hemispheric  divisions  of  the  earth's 
surface;  but  is  world  wide  in  its  scope 
and  operation.  The  conflict  of  races 
is  the  dominating  problem  of  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  North  and 
South  America,  and  the  scattered  is 
lands  of  the  seas.  The  political  and 
[13] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

economic  issues  which  now  threaten 
disruption  of  the  foundation  of  social 
order,  on  deeper  analysis,  will  be 
found  to  have  their  root  in  the  deeper 
issue  of  race. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  but  an 
infinitesimal  fraction  of  the  universal 
race  problem;  and  yet,  the  American 
Negro  problem  presents  certain  unique 
and  peculiar  features  which  cause  the 
students  of  social  subjects  to  bestow 
upon  it  a  degree  of  attention  accorded 
to  no  other  point  of  race  contact 
throughout  the  -globe.'  Among  these 
peculiar  features  may  be  mentioned: 
(1);  In;  the:  'United  ;Sj:ate&  we  have  the 
most  gigantic  instance  in  history  where 
the  weaker  race  has  been  brought  into 
the  territory  of  the  stronger  as  a  serv 
ile  element.  The  stronger  race  usu 
ally  overruns  the  territory  of  the 
weaker,  reduces  it  to  subjection,  and 
imposes  upon  the  subdued  people  its 
lordly  regime.  (2)  The  Negro  and 
the  European  represent  widely  diverg 
ent  ethnic  types.  The  experiment  cf 
[14] 


RACE  CONTACT 

adjusting  markedly  different  races  on 
terms  of  equality,  under  democratic 
institutions,  is  here  being  tried  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  race  re 
lationship.  The  weaker  element  is 
greatly  outnumbered  by  the  stronger, 
and  is  unevenly  distributed  over  the 
geographical  area.  The  numerical 
inferiority  of  the  Negro  renders  his 
presence  less  menaceful  in  the  judg 
ment  of  the  more  populous  and  more 
powerful  race;  while  his  segregation 
in  the  South  produces  a  state  of  un 
balanced  pressure  of  public  sentiment 
concerning  his  place  and  part  in  the 
general  political  and  social  scheme. 
The  traditional  attitude  of  the  North 
and  the  South  grows  out  of  this  un- 
evenness  of  numerical  distribution. 

The  United  States  thus  becomes  the 
world's  most  interesting  laboratory  for 
working  out  the  intricate  issues  of  race 
adjustment.  Well  might  the  social 
philosopher  observe  with  keenest  in 
terest  this  tremendous  experiment; 
for,  if  this  experiment  succeeds,  it  will 
[15] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

furnish  a  sure  criterion  for  the  solu 
tion  of  the  various  race  problems 
which  are  coterminous  with  the  ends 
of  the  earth. 

Voltaire,  the  famous  French  philos 
opher,  states  that  it  is  more  difficult 
and  more  meritorious  to  civilize  the 
barbarian  than  it  is  to  wean  men  from 
their  prejudices.  Here  we  have  the 
dual  nature  of  the  race  problem  ex 
pressed  in  the  clear  terms  of  a  French 
aphorism.  How  can  the  white  race  be 
freed  of  prejudice  while  the  Negro  is 
being  lifted  to  the  level  of  surround 
ing  civilization?  Either  of  these 
problems  is  sufficient  to  tax  human  in 
genuity.  But  when  we  roll  the  two 
into  one,  the  world  stands  bewildered 
at  the  task.  To  add  to  its  bewilder 
ment,  these  two  features  seem  to  be 
incompatible,  the  one  with  the  other. 
/The  more  progressive  and  ambitious 
f  the  Negro  becomes,  the  less  tolerable 
he  seems  to  be  to  his  white  lord  and 
-  master.  The  good  old  Negro  slave 
who  was  ever  faithful  and  loyal  to  the 
[16] 


RACE  CONTACT 

welfare  of  his  lord  and  master  was 
always  acceptable  to  him.  But  his 
more  ambitious  son,  with  a  college  di 
ploma  in  his  knapsack,  is  persona  non 
grata.  The  Negro  coachman  can 
drive  his  white  master  to  the  depot,  sit 
ting  side  by  side  and  cheek  by  jowl, 
with  complaisant  satisfaction;  but  a 
different  situation  is  created  should 
they  become  joint  occupants  of  a  settee 
in  a  railway  coach,  where  each  pays 
his  own  fare  and  rides  on  terms  of 
equality. 

The  attitude  of  the  white  race  to- 
wards  the  Negro  must  be  accounted 
for  in  the  light  of  the  origin  of  their 
relationship.  The  Negro  was  brought 
to  this  country  for  the  purpose  of 
performing  manual  and  menial  labor. 
No  more  account  was  taken  of  his 
higher  susceptibilities  than  of  the 
higher  faculties  of  the  lower  animals. 
His  function  was  supposed  to  be  as 
purely  mechanical  as  that  of  the  ox 
who  pulls  the  plough.  There  was  no 
more  thought  of  incorporating  him 
[17] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

into  the  body  social  than  of  thus  en 
nobling  the  beasts  of  burden.  The 
institution  of  slavery  made  no  requi 
sition  upon  the  higher  human  facul 
ties  of  the  Negro,  and,  consequently, 
its  philosophers  denied  their  existence. 
Those  who  assumed  not  only  the  good 
ness,  but  also  the  piety  of  their  day 
and  generation,  at  one  time  stoutly 
denied  that  the  Negro  possessed  a  soul 
to  be  saved;  and  he  was,  therefore, 
refused  the  rite  of  Christian  baptism. 
And  then  the  wise  ones  declared  that 
he  did  not  possess  an  intellect  that 
could  be  enlightened  after  the  Euro 
pean  formulas.  They  said  that  the 
Negro's  skull  was  too  thick  to  learn, 
and,  in  order  to  make  the  prediction 
work  out  its  own  fulfilment,  they  forth 
with  passed  laws  forbidding  the  at 
tempt.  What  nature  decreed  he  could 
not  do,  man  declared  he  should  not  try. 
It  is  always  an  indication  of  uncertainty 
of  thought  and  disquietude  of  con 
science  when  men  begin  to  re-enact  the 
laws  of  the  Almighty.  The  institu- 
[18] 


RACE  CONTACT 

tion  of  African  slavery  sought  to  ex 
ploit  the  Negro's  utility  as  a  tool,  in 
utter  disregard  of  his  higher  human 
qualities.  The  Negro  has  had  to  fight 
his  way  upward  from  this  low  level  of 
valuation  of  his  animal  and  mechan 
ical  powers  to  a  just  appraisement  of 
his  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual 
endowments  which  differentiate  him 
from  the  brute  creation.  The  one 
clear  ray  of  hope  of  the  ultimate  satis 
factory  adjustment  of  the  races  is  seen 
in  the  fuller  degree  of  recognition 
which  the  unfolding  human  faculties 
of  the  Negro  command  from  an  unwill 
ing  world.  The  superiority  of  the 
black  man's  spiritual  endowment  is 
now  universally  conceded.  Whether 
or  not  his  skull  is  less  thick  than  for 
merly,  no  one  now  affects  to  doubt 
his  ability  to  learn,  except  those  who 
themselves  need  to  be  pitied  for  their 
incapacity  to  grasp  the  truth.  On 
final  analysis,  it  will  be  found  that  it 
is  not  flesh  and  blood,  but  intellectual, 
moral  and  spiritual  qualities  that  con- 
[19] 


AN  APPEAL  70  CONSCIENCE 

stitute  the  controlling  factor  in  human 
relationship. 

The  earlier  philosophers  of  Negro 
subordination  maintained,  with  infal 
lible  dogma,  that  the  Negro  was  in 
herently  and  unalterably  inferior  in 
human  qualities  as  a  part  of  God's 
cosmic  scheme  of  things.  This  in 
feriority  of  nature  was  assumed  to  be 
ample  justification  for  all  the  treat 
ment  which  was  bestowed  upon  him. 
But  the  progress  of  events  plays  havoc 
with  preconceived  notions.  Inferior 
ity  and  superiority  are  relative  and 
temporary  terms.  The  rapidly  devel 
oping  powers  and  faculties  of  the 
Negro  are  making  all  but  the  infallible 
sceptical  concerning  the  basis  of  their 
philosophy.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
how  these  philosophers  of  Negro  sub 
ordination  have  been  compelled  to 
shift  from  one  discredited  theory  to  an 
other,  like  a  frightened  bird  that  flut 
ters  and  flits  from  twig  to  twig,  as  they 
bend  and  break  beneath  its  tremulous 
weight.  There  seems  to  be  a  touch 
[20] 


RACE  CONTACT 

of  primeval  jealousy  which  is  always 
fearful  of  the  under  man,  lest  he 
stretch  forth  his  hand  and  partake  of 
the  tree  of  civilization  and  eat  and 
live  and  become  as  one  of  us.  The 
fear  is  well  founded.  It  is  only  a 
comprehensive  knowledge  of  human 
welfare  that  frees  us  from  fear. 

Those  who  reason  thus  tell  us  that 
this  is  a  white  man's  civilization.  Be 
cause  the  Negro  has  no  clearly  trace 
able  historical  connection  with  this 
civilization,  they  tell  us  that  it  is  none 
of  his.  But  they  forget  the  moral  of 
that  Scripture  parable  in  which  the  la 
borer  coming  into  the  vineyard  at  the 
eleventh  hour  was  received  in  terms  of 
compensatory  equality  with  those  who 
had  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the 
day.  Other  men  have  labored,  and 
we  have  entered  into  their  labors. 
The  white  race  today  is  in  the  fore 
front  of  the  civilized  movements  of  the 
world.  They  are  the  trustees  of  civi 
lization,  and,  if  true  to  their  trust,  it 
must  be  administered  not  only  for  the 
[21] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

welfare  of  their  own  breed  after  the 
flesh,  but  for  all  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  men.  Like  all  of  the 
higher  values  of  life,  civilization  will 
die  unless  it  is  propagated  among  all 
/who  are  capable  of  embracing  it.  In 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  Shakespeare  has 
stated  the  self-enlarging  law  of  human 
affection — the  more  I  give,  the  more  I 
have.  Universal  law  is  reversible;  it 
is  as  true  when  stated  backward  as 
when  stated  forward.  The  less  of  the 
higher  values  we  give,  the  less  we 
have.  If  an  individual  tries  to  keep 
his  religion  to  himself,  he  will  soon 
have  no  religion.  And  so  it  is  with 
the  higher  form  of  civilization  and 
culture. 

The  attitude  of  the  white  mind  to 
wards  the  Negro  is  understandable  in 
the  light  of  the  former  relationship  of 
master  and  slave.  The  normal  hu 
man  attitude  is  conservative  and  re 
sents  alteration  and  change.  We  do 
not  like  to  see  our  erstwhile  inferior 
assume  equality.  It  is  expecting,  per- 
[22] 


RACE  CONTACT 

haps,  too  much  of  human  nature,  to 
suppose  that  the  southern  white  man 
would  accept  with  satisfaction  of  feel 
ing  a  sudden  transformation  of  the 
slave  into  the  freeman,  or  of  a  former 
inferior  into  an  equal.  We  must 
await  the  propitiating  element  of  time 
to  assuage  the  animosities  and  bias  of 
mind  engendered  by  ages  of  asserted 
and  accepted  dogma. 

To  bolster  up  the  cherished  dogma, 
it  is  declared  that  race  prejudice  is  a 
natural  antipathy,  and,  therefore,  is 
not  subject  to  regulation  and  control. 
Henry  W.  Grady,  not  only  the  mouth 
piece,  but  the  oracle  of  the  South,  de 
clared  in  one  of  his  deliverances,  that 
he  believed  that  natural  instinct  would 
hold  the  races  asunder,  but,  if  such 
instinct  did  not  exist,  he  would 
strengthen  race  prejudice  so  as  to 
make  it  hold  the  stubbornness  and 
strength  of  instinct.  Analysis  of  the 
nature  and  theory  of  race  prejudice 
would  lead  too  far  into  the  realm  of 
philosophic  speculation  for  the  pur- 
[23] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

poses  of  the  present  undertaking.  It 
is  sufficient  to  say,  however,  that  the 
criterion  of  an  instinctive  characteris 
tic  is  tested  by  its  modifiability.  A 
quality  that  is  easily  modified  is  not 
considered  the  product  of  heredity, 
but  the  acquisition  of  environment. 
Race  prejudice  is  stronger  on  the 
part  of  the  white  race  in  Richmond, 
Virginia,  than  it  is  in  Boston,  Massa 
chusetts.  It  is  stronger  in  the  United 
States  today  than  it  was  a  generation 
ago.  It  is  immeasurably  stronger  in 
the  adult  than  in  the  child.  Its  mani 
festations  on  the  part  of  the  same  in 
dividual,  under  the  same  stimulus, 
varies  with  time,  place  and  circum 
stances.  The  Civil  War  suddenly 
raised  the  thermometer  of  public  feel 
ing  to  such  a  degree  that  it  seemed,  for 
a  time,  that,  on  the  part  of  many  in 
dividuals,  race  prejudice  would  be 
wiped  out  altogether.  The  intensity 
of  race  feeling  is  proportionate  to  the 
number  of  Negroes  in  the  community. 
Race  prejudice  takes  on  a  different 
[24] 


RACE  CONTACT 

form  of  manifestation  in  communities 
where  slavery  once  existed  and  in 
those  communities  where  it  did  not 
prevail.  If  race  antipathy  is  a  nat 
ural  endowment,  it  would,  necessarily, 
be  reciprocal  in  its  operation.  It  is 
not  claimed  that  it  asserts  itself  on  the 
part  of  the  Negro  against  the  white 
man,  but  always  in  the  opposite  direc 
tion.  It  is  sometimes  asserted  that 
the  Negro  seeks  unwarranted  associa 
tion  with  the  white  race,  in  preference 
to  his  own  blood  relation.  If  true, 
this  assertion  would  destroy  the  foun 
dation  upon  which  belief  in  innate 
race  antagonism  rests.  It  shows  that 
the  desire  for  contact  with  superior 
attainment  early  nullifies  whatever 
stubbornness  and  strength  the  assumed 
antipathy  of  race  may  possess.  And 
thus,  in  various  ways,  it  is  clearly 
manifest  that  the  feeling  which  we  call 
race  prejudice  is  profoundly  modifi 
able  by  time,  circumstance  and  condi 
tion.  It  is  equally  clear  that  what 
ever  inherency  it  may  possess,  it  is 
[25]  ' 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

sufficiently  controllable  to  permit  the 
Negro  to  enjoy  the  full  and  free  exer 
cise  of  his  rights  and  prerogatives  as 
a  citizen  in  a  democratic  republic. 

We  may  as  well  dismiss  without  ar 
gument  the  various  theories  of  the  out 
come  of  race  contact  as  being  inappli 
cable  to  the  present  situation.  It  is 
merely  necessary  to  mention  exter 
mination  and  expulsion  to  prove  their 
self-absurdity.  Absorption  of  the  Ne 
gro  by  the  white  race  is  too  remote  to 
be  considered  as  a  practicable  propo 
sition.  I  may  be  permitted  to  repeat 
here  what  I  have  said  elsewhere: 

"It  must  be  taken  for  granted  in 
the  final  outcome  of  things  that  the 
color  line  will  be  wholly  obliterated. 
While  blood  may  be  thicker  than 
water,  it  does  not  possess  the  spissi- 
tude  or  inherency  of  everlasting  prin 
ciple.  The  brotherhood  of  man  is 
more  fundamental  than  the  fellowship 
of  race.  A  physical  and  spiritual 
identity  of  all  peoples  occupying  com 
mon  territory  is  a  logical  necessity  of 
[26] 


RACE  CONTACT 

thought.  The  clear  seeing  mind  re 
fuses  to  yield  or  give  its  assent  to  any 
other  ultimate  conclusion.  This  con 
summation,  however,  is  far  too  re 
moved  from  the  sphere  of  present 
probability  to  have  decisive  influence 
upon  practical  procedure.  It  runs 
parallel  with  the  prophecy  that  every 
valley  shall  be  exalted  and  every  hill 
shall  be  brought  low.  This  is  a  phys 
ical  necessity.  Under  the  continuing 
law  of  gravitation,  every  stream  that 
trickles  down  the  mountain  side,  every 
downpour  of  rain,  and  every  passing 
gust  of  wind  removes  infinite  particles 
and  shifts  them  from  a  higher  to  a 
lower  level.  This  tendency  to  lower 
the  one  and  lift  the  other  will  continue 
everlastingly  until  equality  has  been 
established  as  the  final  condition  of 
stable  equilibrium.  In  the  meantime, 
however,  the  human  race  must  adjust 
itself  to  the  existence  of  mountain  and 
valley  as  a  lasting,  if  not  everlasting, 
reality.  Likewise,  perpetual  attrition 
of  races  must  ultimately  wear  away  all 
[27]  ' 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

distinction  and  result  in  a  universal 
blend.  But  the  approximation  of  this 
goal  is  too  slow  and  imperceptible  to 
have  any  effect  upon  the  present  plan 
of  race  adjustment.  We  are  con 
cerned  with  persistent,  stubborn  reali 
ties  which  we  have  the  power  neither 
to  influence  nor  affect,  and  must  deal 
with  conditions  as  they  are  in  our  day 
and  generation,  and  not  as  we  may 
vainly  or  vaguely  imagine  them  in  the 
ages  yet  to  be."  .  .  . 

The  two  races  will  continue  to  exist 
side  by  side.  They  are  linked  to  a 
common  destiny  of  good  or  evil  and 
their  relations  should  be  characterized 
by  amity  rather  than  by  enmity.  The 
Negro  appeals  to  the  white  race  in  the 
language  of  Ruth  to  Naomi: 

"Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  to 
return  from  following  after  thee:  for 
whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go;  and 
where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy 
God  my  God.  Where  thou  diest  will  I 
die,  and  there  will  I  be  buried." 
[28] 


CHAPTER  II 

LAWLESSNESS 

THE  spirit  of  lawlessness  against  the 
Negro  culminates  in  the  practice  of 
lynching.  The  whole  civilized  world 
is  frequently  shocked  at  the  horrible 
lynchings  of  human  beings  such  as 
took  place  at  Waco,  Memphis  and  East 
St.  Louis.  These  horrible  happenings 
are  but  eruptive  symptoms  of  the  race 
problem  which  break  forth  ever  and 
anon  with  Vesuvian  violence.  These 
periodic  outbreaks  of  lawlessness  are 
but  the  outgrowth  of  the  disfavor  and 
despite  in  which  the  Negro  is  held 
by  public  opinion.  During  the  past 
thirty  years  nearly  three  thousand  Ne 
groes  have  been  lynched  in  various 
parts  of  the  country.  Scores  have 
been  burned  alive  at  the  stake.  Even 
[29] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

the  bodies  of  women  have  been  fed  to 
the  flames.  Thousands  of  localities 
in  various  parts  of  the  Union  have  ex 
perienced  these  outrages.  A  map  of 
the  United  States  with  these  localities 
indicated  in  blood  spots  would  be  a 
gruesome  spectacle  indeed.  Our  fair 
land  of  liberty  is  blotted  over  with 
these  blood  spots  which  cannot  be 
washed  out  by  all  the  waters  of  the 
ocean.  It  is  not  easy  to  calculate  the 
total  number  of  persons  who  have 
been  involved  in  these  lynchings, 
either  as  active  participants,  or  as 
acquiescent  lookers-on,  every  one  of 
whom  is  a  potential  murderer,  with  the 
same  guilt  of  Conscience  which  Paul 
imparted  to  himself  when  he  con 
sented  unto  the  death  of  Stephen.  So 
general  and  widespread  has  become 
the  practice  that  lynching  may  well  be 
characterized  as  a  national  institution, 
to  the  eternal  shame  and  disgrace  of 
the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of 
the  brave. 

The  practice  of  lynching  is  not  in- 
[30] 


LAWLESSNESS 

fluenced  by  the  ascendancy  of  any  po 
litical  party.  It  prevailed  with  equal 
freedom  under  the  administration 
of  Harrison,  Cleveland,  McKinley, 
Roosevelt,  Taft  and  Wilson.  These 
American  statesmen  have  all  ex 
pressed  their  abhorrence  of  the  prac 
tice,  but  have  declared  their  impotence 
to  deal  with  the  evil.  During  the  ad 
ministration  of  President  McKinley 
the  riot  in  Wilmington,  North  Caro 
lina,  occurred.  A  horrible  lynching 
took  place  in  Alexandria,  a  few  miles 
from  the  White  House,  which  the  Pres 
ident  might  have  observed  through  his 
field  glasses.  The  Atlanta  riot  oc 
curred  under  the  administration  of 
President  Roosevelt,  the  one  great 
American  who  has  an  all-consuming 
passion  for  righteousness.  But  he 
was  impotent  to  remedy  by  reason  of 
the  theory  of  government.  The  au 
thor  had  the  privilege  of  introducing 
President  Taft,  who  addressed  the 
Alumni  Association  of  Howard  Uni 
versity  on  the  subject  of  lynching. 
[31] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

He  denounced  the  practice  with  all  the 
ardor  and  indignation  of  his  high- 
minded  and  generous  nature,  but  there 
was  not  the  slightest  suggestion  of 
an  effective  remedy  through  federal 
agency.  Under  the  present  adminis 
tration,  the  burning  at  Waco,  the  au 
tomobile  mob  at  Memphis,  and  the 
horrible  outbreak  at  East  St.  Louis 
are  still  fresh  in  our  memory,  and 
have  only  been  met  with  an  expression 
of  impotent  regret.  Grover  Cleve 
land,  with  robust  and  untrammelled 
American  spirit,  was  disposed  to  in 
voke  the  federal  machinery  to  sup 
press  local  lawlessness,  beyond  any 
other  President  before  or  since  his 
time. 

We  can  hardly  take  up  a  daily 
newspaper  without  seeing  startling 
headlines  about  Negroes  lynched  or 
burned  at  the  stake.  At  first,  it 
shocked  and  horrified  the  conscience, 
but  according  to  the  law  of  psychic 
economy,  the  public  conscience  has  be 
come  so  accustomed  to  these  horrors 
[32] 


LAWLESSNESS 

/  as  to  be  no  longer  shocked  at  their 
recurrence.  I  remember  to  have  read 
in  a  great  journal  the  description  of  a 

/  lynching  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
the  victim  was  lynched,  but  that  no 
cruelty  was  perpetrated.  In  truth  and 
in  deed, 

"Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  frightful  mien, 
That  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen; 
Yet  seen  so  oft,  familiar  to  our  face, 
We  first  endure  .  .  .  then  pity  .  .  .  then 
embrace." 

The  nation  has  allowed  itself  to  be 
come  so  accustomed  to  lynching  that  it 
has  accepted  it  with  complaisant  tol 
eration.  The  nation's  conscience  has 
become  sere,  and  responds  but  feebly 
to  the  quickening  power  of  moral  ap 
peal. 

Lynching  is  not  limited  to  the  south 
ern  states,  although  it  occurs  more  fre 
quently  there  than  elsewhere  because 
of  the  relatively  larger  number  of 
Negroes  in  the  total  population. 
There  have  been  lynchings  and  burn- 
[33] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

ings  in  Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Colorado,  Kansas 
and  other  northern  and  western  states. 
The  evil  is  indeed  national  in  range 
and  scope. 

Striking,  indeed,  is  the  analogy  be 
tween  the  spread  of  lawlessness  today 
and  the  spread  of  slavery  two  genera 
tions  ago.  Like  slavery,  lynching  and 
lawlessness  cannot  be  localized. 
Neither  the  evil  nor  the  virtue  of  the 
nation  can  be  held  in  airtight  com 
partments,  separating  state  from  state, 
or  section  from  section.  As  the  nation 
could  not  exist  half  slave  and  half 
free  under  Abraham  Lincoln  a  half 
century  ago,  so  it  cannot  exist  half 
law-abiding  and  half  lawless  today. 
The  evil  always  tends  to  obscure  the 
good,  just  as  the  darker  phase  over 
laps  the  brighter  in  the  waning  moon. 
If  the  Negro  is  lynched  in  the  South 
with  impunity,  he  will  soon  be  lynched 
in  the  North;  so  easy  is  the  commu- 
nicability  of  evil  suggestion.  The 
lynching  of  Negroes  has  become  f  ash- 
[34] 


LAWLESSNESS 

ionable  in  some  parts  of  the  country, 
and  is  rapidly  becoming  fashionable 
in  the  nation  at  large.  When  a  black 
man  is  accused  of  wrongdoing,  , 
"Lynch  the  Negro!"  is  the  cry  that 
springs  spontaneously  to  the  lips  of 
man,  woman  and  child.  "Rape 
means  rope,"  says  the  sententious  Sam 
Jones.  But  the  unlegalized  rope  has 
been  the  badge  of  ignominious  death 
on  the  part  of  the  black  man  only ;  just 
as  the  cross  was  the  symbol  of  igno 
miny  to  be  inflicted  only  on  those  who 
were  not  Roman  citizens.  If  the  in 
stitution  of  human  slavery  could  have 
been  separated  and  isolated  in  the 
South,  it  doubtless  would  have  had  a 
much  longer  lease  of  life.  The  Free 
Soil  party  sprang  into  existence  not  as 
a  means  of  exterminating  slavery,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  it  out  of 
the  uncontaminated  territory.  But 
there  could  be  no  free  soil  in  America 
unless  all  the  soil  were  free.  If 
lynching  could  be  localized,  the  nation 
as  a  whole  would  have  less  pretext 
[35] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

for  interfering.  But  this  cannot  be 
done.  Senator  Tombs  of  Georgia 
boasted  that  he  would  call  the  roll  of 
his  slaves  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Bunker  Hill  monument,  an  ambition 
which,  doubtless,  might  have  been 
gratified  had  not  the  nation  arisen  in 
its  moral  might  and  blotted  out  the  in 
iquitous  institution  altogether.  And 
so  the  Negro  may  yet  be  lynched,  not 
only  under  the  shadow  of  the  Bunker 
Hill  monument,  but  under  the  dome  of 
the  Capitol  itself,  unless  the  nation 
puts  an  effective  stop  to  the  evil  prac 
tice. 

Lynching  cannot  be  confined  to  the 
Negro  race.  Hundreds  of  white  men 
have  been  made  the  victims  of  sum 
mary  violence.  Although  the  Negro  is 
at  present  the  chief  victim  of  lawless 
ness,  yet,  like  any  other  disease,  it 
cannot  be  limited  by  racial  lines. 
The  Jewish  race  has  been  made  to  feel 
the  sting  of  race  prejudice,  culminat 
ing  in  the  lynching  of  Leo  Frank  in 
Georgia,  arousing  the  resentment  of 
[36] 


LAWLESSNESS 

\ 

all  Jewry  at  the  deep  damnation  of  his 
taking  off.  Italians  were  lynched  in 
Louisiana,  almost  precipitating  inter 
national  controversy. 

It  is  needless  to  attempt  to  place  the 
blame  on  the  helpless  Negro.  In  the 
early  stages  of  these  outbreaks  there 
was  an  attempt  to  fix  an  evil  and  lech 
erous  reputation  on  the  Negro  as  lying 
at  the  basis  of  lynching  and  lawless 
ness.  Statistics  most  clearly  refute 
this  contention.  The  great  majority 
of  the  outbreaks  cannot  even  allege 
rapeful  assault  in  extenuation.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  there  are  im- 
bruited  and  lawless  members  of  the 
Negro  race,  as  there  are  of  the  white 
race,  capable  of  committing  any  out 
rageous  and  hideous  offence.  The 
Negro  possesses  the  imperfections  of 
his  status.  As  long  as  the  race  is  held 
in  general  despite,  just  so  long  will  it 
produce  a  disproportionate  number  of 
imperfect  individuals  of  evil  propen 
sity.  There  are  millions  of  Negroes 
who,  like  Topsy,  "just  growed." 
[37] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

They  have  missed  the  beneficent  influ 
ence  of  home,  school,  church  and  so 
ciety  and  cannot  but  show  a  lack  of 
moral  quality.  It  is  folly  to  suppose 
that  the  neglected  Negro,  without  the 
reinforcement  of  heredity,  ennobling 
environment  or  formal  education,  will 
measure  up  to  the  highest  standard 
of  moral  accountability.  The  white 
child  with  the  advantage  of  heredity 
and  environment  must  have  his  facul 
ties  carefully  trained  to  meet  the  re 
quirements  of  civilization.  The  Negro 
is  susceptible  to  the  ordinary  influ 
ences  that  ennoble  or  degrade  human 
ity.  To  relegate  the  Negro  to  a  status 
that  encourages  the  baser  instincts, 
and  then  denounce  him  because  he 
does  not  stand  forth  as  a  model  of 
perfection,  is  of  the  same  order  of 
ironical  cruelty  as  shown  by  the  bar 
barous  Teutons  in  Shakespeare's  Titus 
Andronicus  who  cut  off  the  hands  and 
hacked  out  the  tongue  of  the  lovely 
Lavinia,  and  then  upbraided  her  for 
not  calling  for  perfumed  water  to 
[38] 


LAWLESSNESS 

wash  her  delicate  hands.  The  Negro 
is  neither  angelic  nor  diabolical,  but 
merely  human,  exemplifying  the  vir 
tues  and  vices  which  belong  to  the 
status  which  he  has  been  forced  to 
occupy. 

The  Negro  should  be  encouraged  in 
all  right  directions  to  develop  his  best 
manly  and  human  qualities.  Who 
will  say  that  he  does  not  respond  to 
humane  treatment?  The  Negroes  who 
have  had  the  proper  influences  brought 
to  bear  upon  their  lives  show  as  high 
a  degree  of  conduct  and  manly  de 
meanor  as  any  other  element  of  our 
population.  When  the  black  man  de 
viates  from  the  recognized  standards 
of  conduct  he  should  be  punished  by 
due  process  of  law,  no  whit  augmented 
or  abated  because  of  his  race  identity. 
It  is  a  fatuous  philosophy  that  would 
resort  to  cruel  and  unusual  punish 
ment  as  a  deterrent  of  crime.  Lynch 
ing  never  made  one  Negro  virtuous, 
nor  implanted  the  seeds  of  right  doing 
in  the  heart  of  any  human  being.  On 
[39] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

the  other  hand,  it  has  lowered  the  sen 
sitiveness  of  the  conscience  of  the 
white  race,  and  has  damaged  the 
moral  reputation  of  the  nation. 

Lecherous  assault  cannot  be  proved 
to  be  an  innate  characteristic  of  the 
Negro.  The  practice  is  not  uncom 
mon  among  all  civilized  nations.  The 
United  States  military  authorities 
have  recently  hanged  an  American  sol 
dier  in  France  for  rapeful  assault  and 
murder.  Violation  of  feminine  chas 
tity  meets  with  as  condign  punishment 
in  Africa  as  in  civilized  lands.  Dur 
ing  the  days  of  slavery  it  was  unheard 
of.  In  the  midst  of  the  Civil  War, 
when  the  white  men  of  the  South  left 
their  fortunes  and  their  families  in  the 
keeping  of  the  black  man  whose  chains 
they  were  endeavoring  to  tighten  on 
the  field  of  battle,  he  returned  invio 
late  all  that  was  committed  to  his  care. 
In  the  West  Indies,  and,  indeed,  in  the 
entire  world  range  of  race  contact,  this 
charge  is  not  lodged  as  a  peculiar 
characteristic  of  the  Negro  race. 
[40] 


LAWLESSNESS 

The  contact,  adjustment  and  attri 
tion  of  the  various  races  of  mankind 
constitute  a  problem  which  is  cotermin 
ous  with  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
lighter  and  stronger  breeds  of  men  are 
coming  in  contact  with  the  darker  and 
weaker  ones.  How  does  it  happen  that 
in  the  United  States  alone  of  all  civil 
ized  lands,  these  atrocious  outrages  are 
heaped  upon  the  helpless  Negro?  No 
other  helpless  people  anywhere  in  the 
world  have  been  made  the  victims  of 
such  lawlessness  and  outrage.  The 
English  nation  has  had  the  largest  co 
lonial  experience  and  success  of  any 
peoples  since  the  destruction  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  has  come  into  re 
lationship  with  the  various  weaker 
breeds  of  men  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  But  lynching  never  prevails 
under  the  British  flag.  In  the  West 
Indies,  where  the  Negroes  outnumber 
the  whites  20  to  1,  the  word  has  not 
yet  found  place  in  the  local  vocabu 
lary.  In  Brazil  and  other  South 
American  states,  which  are  involved 
[41] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

in  a  more  complex  racial  situation 
than  that  in  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica,  racial  peace  and  good  will  pre 
vail,  and  racial  prejudice  and  passion 
are  controlled  and  held  in  restraint. 
The  United  States  enjoys  the  evil  dis 
tinction,  among  civilized  nations  of 
the  earth,  of  taking  delight  in  the  mur 
der  and  burning  of  human  beings. 
Nowhere  else  do  men,  women  and 
children  dance  with  ghoulish  glee  and 
fight  for  ghastly  souvenirs  of  human 
flesh  and  mock  the  dying  groans  of  the 
helpless  victim,  which  sicken  the  air, 
while  the  flickering  flames  of  the  fu 
nereal  pyre  lighten  the  midnight  sky 
with  their  dismal  glare.  The  blood  of 
the  Negro  cries  from  the  ground  unto 
the  conscience  of  the  nation. 

The  evil  is,  indeed,  national.  So 
must  the  remedy  be.  It  is  but  hollow 
mockery  of  the  Negro,  when  he  is 
beaten  and  bruised  and  burned  in  all 
parts  of  the  nation,  and  flees  to  the  na 
tional  government  for  asylum,  to  be 
denied  relief  on  the  ground  of  doubt- 
[42] 


LAWLESSNESS 

ful  jurisdiction.  The  black  man  asks 
for  justice  and  is  given  a  theory  of 
government.  He  asks  for  protection 
and  is  confronted  with  a  scheme  of 
governmental  checks  and  balances. 
If  democracy  cannot  control  lawless 
ness,  then  democracy  must  be  pro 
nounced  a  failure.  The  old  adage 
still  holds  true: 

"For  forms  of  government  let  fools  con 
test— 
Whatever's  best  administered — is  best." 

The  nations  of  the  world  have  a  right 
to  demand  of  us  the  working  out  in 
their  integrity  of  our  institutions  at 
home  before  they  are  promulgated 
abroad.  The  outrages  of  which  the 
Belgians  so  deeply  and  so  justly  com 
plain  are  but  merciful  performances 
by  gruesome  comparison  with  these 
daily  inflictions  upon  the  American 
Negro.  Our  frantic  wail  against  the 
barbarity  of  Turk  upon  Armenian, 
Russian  against  Jew,  German  against 
Belgian,  are  belied  and  made  of  no 
[43] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

effect.  It  cannot  be  said  that  these 
outbreaks  are  but  the  spontaneous 
ebullitions  of  popular  feeling,  without 
governmental  sanction  or  approval. 
They  occur  all  over  the  nation  and 
give  it  an  evil  reputation  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world.  Sins  of  permission  are 
as  reprehensible  as  sins  of  commis 
sion.  A  nation  that  permits  evil  prac 
tices  to  go  unchecked  and  hides  be 
hind  a  theory  of  government  is  as  rep 
rehensible  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  as 
the  nation  that  assumes  responsibility 
for  them. 

A  few  years  ago  a  Turkish  ambas 
sador  became  persona  non  grata  to  the 
government  for  calling  attention  to  the 
moral  inconsistency  of  the  United 
States  in  denouncing  the  outrages  per 
petrated  by  Turks  upon  Armenians, 
while  condoning  or  ignoring  those 
committed  by  whites  upon  blacks. 
The  nation  is  compelled,  in  a  spirit  of 
humility,  to  accept  the  reproach  which 
the  world  hurls  into  our  teeth:  "Thou 
hypocrite,  first  cast  the  beam  out  of 
[44] 


LAWLESSNESS 

thine  own  eye ;  and  then  shalt  thou  see 
clearly  to  cast  the  mote  out  of  thy 
brother's  eye."  Every  high-minded 
American  must  be  touched  with  a 
tinge  of  shame  when  he  contemplates 
that  the  rallying  cry  of  the  land  of  the 
free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  is 
made  a  delusion  and  a  snare  by  rea 
son  of  racial  barbarities.  The  world 
is  at  war  with  the  Teutonic  powers  be 
cause  the  German  government  openly 
declared  an  international  treaty  to  be 
a  mere  scrap  of  paper.  But,  long  be 
fore  this  avowed  declaration,  the  Four 
teenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments — 
the  vital  parts  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States — were  made  scraps 
of  paper  by  the  practice  and  condona 
tion  of  the  American  people. 

An  outspoken  governor  of  one  of 
the  states  of  the  Union  was  widely  de 
nounced  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land  for  saying:  "To 
hell  with  the  Constitution  where  the 
race  issue  is  involved!"  It  was  not 
the  substance,  but  the  unceremonial 
[45] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

and  explosive  form  of  the  utterance 
that  evoked  popular  condonation. 
The  nation  cannot  face  its  own  con 
duct.  It  accepts  the  fact,  but  shrinks 
from  the  phrase.  It,  therefore,  must 
blot  out  lynching  and  lawlessness  in 
order  to  safeguard  its  moral  reputa 
tion. 

At  Houston,  Texas,  a  group  of  Ne 
gro  soldiers,  goaded  to  desperation  by 
reflex  racial  passion,  inflicted  a  heavy 
toll  of  fatality  upon  the  whites,  revers 
ing  the  usual  order  of  perpetrator  and 
victim.  The  white  race,  accustomed 
to  centuries  of  self-restraint  and  social 
control,  swiftly  overrides  the  exactions 
of  civil  and  divine  law  in  reaction  to 
the  virus  of  race  passion.  The  Negro, 
in  turn,  made  delirious  by  the  same 
passion,  overleaped  the  rigors  of  mil 
itary  discipline. 

The  American  conscience  has  been 
touched  and  quickened  by  the  East  St. 
Louis  and  Houston  outbreaks  as  it  has 
never  been  before.  Press  and  pulpit 
have  tried  to  forget  these  outrages. 
[46] 


LAWLESSNESS 

At  each  fresh  outbreak  they  would 
lash  themselves  into  a  spasm  of  virtue 
and  exhaust  the  entire  vocabulary  of 
denunciation,  but,  forthwith,  would 
lapse  into  sudden  silence  and  acquies 
cent  guilt.  By  some  fatuous  delusion 
they  seem  to  think  that  the  atrocities 
of  Springfield,  Wilmington,  Waco,  At 
lanta,  Memphis  and  a  thousand  other 
places  of  evil  report  would  never  be 
repeated,  nor  the  memory  rise  up  to 
condemn  the  nation.  But  silence  and 
neglect  merely  result  in  compounding 
atrocities.  The  East  St.  Louis  and 
Houston  occurrences  convinced  the  na 
tion,  as  it  has  never  been  convinced 
before,  that  the  time  for  action  has 
come.  The  press  is  not  content  with 
a  single  editorial  ebullition,  but,  by 
repeated  utterances,  insists  that  the  na 
tion  shall  deal  with  its  most  malignant 
domestic  evil.  Reproach  is  cast  upon 
the  American  contention  for  the  de 
mocratization  of  the  world  in  face  of 
its  lamentable  failure  at  home.  Ex- 
President  Roosevelt  has  openly  pro- 
[47] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

claimed,  in  a  dramatic  declaration, 
that  these  outbreaks  make  our  moral 
propaganda  for  the  liberation  of  man 
kind  but  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  Can 
this  nation  hope  to  live  and  to  grow  in 
favor  with  God  and  man  on  the  basis 
of  a  lie?  A  nation  with  a  stultified 
conscience  is  a  nation  with  stunted 
power. 

Experience  shows  that  there  can  be 
no  effective  reform  of  widespread  evil 
by  local  or  state  authority.  Slavery, 
long  regarded  as  a  local  institution, 
could  be  destroyed  only  by  the  firm 
hand  of  the  national  government. 
Polygamy,  traffic  in  vice,  the  white 
slave  trade,  prohibition,  peonage  and 
the  divorce  evil  cannot  be  controlled 
by  state  action,  but  must  be  wiped  out 
by  an  all-embracing  federal  law. 
Lawlessness  and  lynching  are  more  in 
sidious  and  widespread  than  any  other 
national  evils.  They  ramify  through 
out  the  entire  nation,  flourishing  more 
abundantly  in  some  sections  and  lo 
calities  under  fostering  local  condi- 
[48] 


LAWLESSNESS 

tions.  This  evil  taints  the  national 
character  and  cries  loudly  for  na 
tional  remedy. 

In  time  of  war  it  is  necessary  to 
centralize  authority  in  the  hands  of 
the  federal  government.  The  Presi 
dent,  in  the  midst  of  the  world  war, 
has  been  given  all  but  dictatorial 
powers.  It  is  necessary  to  resort  to 
autocratic  methods  in  order  to  destroy 
hated  autocracy.  The  federal  gov 
ernment  controls  our  common  carriers 
and  dictates  what  we  shall  eat  and 
what  we  shall  drink  and  what  we  shall 
or  shall  not  say.  All  of  this  is  justi 
fied  on  the  basis  of  military  necessity. 
But  ample  means  to  blot  out  lawless 
ness  would  be  justified  on  the  ground 
of  moral  necessity. 

The  United  States  has  the  largest 
percentage  of  murders  and  homicides, 
and  the  lowest  average  of  legal  execu 
tions,  of  any  nation  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Ex-President  Taft,  in  a 
notable  address  before  the  Civic  Fo 
rum  of  New  York  City  in  1908,  stated 
[49] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

that  there  had  been  131,951  murders 
and  homicides  in  the  United  States 
since  1885,  and  only  2,286  legal  exe 
cutions.  In  1912  there  were  9,152 
homicides  and  145  executions.  The 
laxity  of  the  law  lies  at  the  root  of  the 
evil.  In  a  new  country  like  ours, 
where  pioneer  conditions  prevailed, 
and  where  the  stronger  race  was  con 
fronted  by  two  more  primitive  races, 
and  where  authority  was  subject  to  lit 
tle  or  no  legal  constraint,  the  spirit  of 
lawlessness  survives  long  after  the 
evoking  conditions  have  passed  away. 
Pioneer  conditions  and  the  racial 
situation,  in  the  earlier  days,  devel 
oped  a  sense  of  personal  liberty  and 
local  freedom  on  the  part  of  the  white 
man  which  was  intolerant  of  restraint 
even  by  the  federal  government. 
Robert  Burns,  committing  the  common 
logical  fallacy  of  misconstruing  an  in 
cidental  circumstance  into  a  casual  re 
lationship,  in  one  of  his  frenzied 
outbursts,  exclaimed:  "Whisky  and 
freedom  go  together."  Subsequent 
[50] 


LAWLESSNESS 

experience  has  shown  that  they  are  as 
mutually  antagonistic  as  evil  and 
good.  And  they  are  not  only  unre 
lated,  but,  in  the  long  run,  one  is  de 
structive  of  the  other.  By  parity  of 
error,  the  wild  spirit  of  lawlessness, 
which  seems  to  flourish  as  a  baytree 
in  the  boasted  land  of  the  free  and 
home  of  the  brave,  might  be  disposed 
to  insist  that  lynching  and  liberty  go 
together.  But  the  error  is  delusive 
and  fatal.  The  principles  are  mutu 
ally  destructive,  like  vice  and  virtue. 
The  nation  must  destroy  lawlessness 
or  lawlessness  will  destroy  the  nation. 


[51] 


CHAPTER  III 

SEGREGATION 

THE  two  races  in  America  occupy 
separate  social  areas,  with  only  inci 
dental  and  temporary  points  of  con 
tact.  In  all  purely  personal  and 
pleasureable  relations  of  life,  the  two 
races  are  almost  as  distinct  aa  if  sepa 
rated  by  interplanetary  space.  The 
races  meet  in  matters  of  barter  and 
business,  but  when  these  relations  are 
released,  each  goes  into  his  own  com 
pany. 

Under  the  old  dispensation  of  mas 
ter  and  slave,  there  was  an  understood 
overlapping  area  of  social  intimacy. 
A  zone  of  social  neutrality  was  estab 
lished  by  complaisant  condescension 
on  the  part  of  the  whites  and  willing 
self -subordination  on  the  part  of  the 
[52] 


SEGREGATION 

blacks.  By  domestic  contact  and  fa 
miliarity  the  Negro  was  made  an  ac 
cepted  member  of  the  household  and, 
under  definitely  understood  limitations 
and  restrictions,  mingled  with  the 
whites  on  terms  of  social  satisfaction. 
Much  of  the  harshness  and  severity  of 
slavery  was  relieved  through  such  con 
tact.  Indeed,  the  advocate  of  slavery 
defended  it  as  a  patriarchal  institu 
tion,  where  master  and  servant  were 
bound  together  by  satisfactory  ties  of 
mutual  interest  and  kindly  feeling. 
The  inhuman  barbarities  of  the  sys 
tem,  such  as  were  revealed  in  "Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,"  were  exhibited  mainly 
in  the  commercial  aspect  where  the  cir 
cle  of  ownership  became  too  large  to 
be  covered  by  the  personal  contact  of 
human  sympathy  of  the  master  class, 
which  had  to  rely  for  hired  intermedi 
aries  upon  overseers  who  neither  un 
derstood  nor  felt  the  ennobling  bond 
of  human  sympathy. 

But  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
destroyed  this  patriarchal  relationship, 
[53] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

and  overlapping  circles  of  race  asso 
ciation  became  tangential.  The  white 
man  no  longer  feels  disposed  to  in 
dulge  in  any  feat  of  social  intimacy  be 
tween  the  races,  for  this  action  would 
be  construed  into  acceptance  of  social 
equality,  whereas  under  the  old  dis 
pensation  no  such  construction  was 
possible.  It  is  related  that  a  Russian 
nobleman,  making  a  voyage  to  Amer 
ica,  locked  himself  up  in  his  cabin  in 
complete  social  isolation  from  the 
other  first  class  passengers,  but  that 
frequently  he  might  be  found  on  the 
lower  deck  indulging  in  free  and  easy 
intercourse  with  the  steerage  emi 
grants.  On  being  questioned  concern 
ing  his  seemingly  inconsistent  atti 
tude,  he  replied  that  social  intimacy 
with  his  fellow  cabin  passengers  might 
be  easily  misconstrued,  while  his 
friendly  relationship  with  those  in  the 
steerage  could  not  possibly  be  misun 
derstood. 

The  white  race  endeavors  to  sepa 
rate  the  social  spheres  of  the  two  races 
[54] 


SEGREGATION 

by  a  horizontal  plane,  keeping  the  low 
est  level  of  white  life  above  the  highest 
attainable  aspiration  of  the  Negro. 
Illustrating  the  different  levels  of  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  and  the  king 
dom  of  heaven,  Jesus  states  that  John 
the  Baptist  was  the  greatest  man  born 
of  woman,  yet  that  the  least  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  was  greater  than 
he.  By  parity  of  illustration  the 
white  race  might  say  that  Booker 
T.  Washington  was  the  greatest  man 
born  of  a  Negro  woman,  yet  the  two 
relative  spheres  are  so  far  apart  that 
the  least  white  man  is  greater  than  he. 
In  his  famous  Atlanta  oration, 
Booker  T.  Washington  laid  the  foun 
dation  of  his  fame  upon  a  phrase 
describing  the  working  of  social  rela 
tionship  between  the  races.  Accord 
ing  to  this  philosophy,  in  all  purely 
business  and  civic  relations,  the  races 
might  act  together  as  the  hand  and  yet 
remain  separate  as  the  fingers  in  so 
cial  matters.  The  difficulty  of  the 
doctrine  lies  in  the  tendency  of  the 
[55] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

social  domain  to  enlarge  itself  so  as 
to  include  the  entire  area  of  human 
relationship.  Because  the  Negro  must 
be  kept  socially  apart  from  the  white 
man,  he  is  not  allowed  to  work  at  the 
same  trade,  be  domiciled  in  the  same 
locality,  attend  the  same  school,  ride 
in  the  same  coach,  worship  in  the  same 
church  or  be  buried  in  the  same  grave 
yard.  Social  affinity,  which  is  essen 
tially  voluntary  and  spontaneous, 
transcends  its  proper  sphere  when  it 
attempts  to  exclude  those  outside  of 
the  charmed  circle  from  enjoyment  of 
life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness. 

During  the  last  extra  session  of  Con 
gress,  numerous  bills  were  introduced 
by  southern  members  for  the  purpose 
of  segregating  employes  of  the  federal 
government.  But  under  the  guidance 
of  wiser  and  more  comprehensive 
leadership,  such  regulations  were  rele 
gated  to  the  pigeonhole  of  Congres 
sional  oblivion.  Several  southern  cit 
ies  enacted  laws  separating  the  resi- 
[56] 


SEGREGATION 

dential  areas  of  the  two  races,  but 
such  statutes  have  been  nullified  by  a 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  The  writer  sat  as  an 
auditor  in  the  Supreme  Court  when 
this  case  was  being  argued.  It  so 
happened  that  M.  Vivian,  Ex-Premier 
of  France,  member  of  the  French  High 
Commission  sent  from  the  democracy 
of  France  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  de 
mocracy  of  America,  was  a  guest  of 
the  Chief  Justice  on  this  occasion. 
This  gallant  representative  of  the  gal 
lant  French  Republic  was  confronted 
by  the  ridiculous  anomaly  of  witness 
ing  the  highest  tribunal  in  the  domi 
nant  democracy  of  the  world  trying  to 
determine  whether  or  not  the  rights  of 
an  American  citizen  at  home  to  buy 
and  occupy  property  should  be  limited 
by  race  and  color.  Great  indeed 
was  the  triumph  of  democracy  when  a 
right  decision  was  reached  on  this 
issue. 

The  effect  of  segregation  would  be 
to   fix  upon  the  American  nation  a 
[57] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

caste  system  which  human  experience 
proves  a  blight  to  every  civilization 
where  it  is  allowed  to  take  hold.  De 
mocracy  is  incompatible  with  caste. 
The  federal  statute  books,  so  far,  are 
free  from  race  or  class  legislation. 
At  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  Con 
stitution,  one-fifth  of  the  population 
was  of  African  blood  and  servile 
status.  But  the  far-seeing  wisdom  of 
the  founder  omitted  all  racial  designa 
tion  or  discrimination  in  the  organic 
law.  A  government  boasting  of  equal 
ity  as  its  basic  principle  which  should 
deliberately  debase  the  weak  and 
helpless  among  its  own  citizens  would 
be  an  anomaly  in  the  eyes  of  the  na 
tions  of  the  earth.  Amid  all  the  pas 
sion  and  tumult  of  the  anti-slavery 
conflict  the  federal  statutes  were  kept 
free  from  the  odium  of  race  distinc 
tion.  The  obiter  dicta  importing  race 
distinction  into  the  decision  of  that 
tribunal  were  swiftly  repudiated  by  the 
moral  indignation  of  the  aroused  con 
science  of  the  American  people.  For 
[58] 


SEGREGATION 

this  government,  today,  to  declare  that 
the  Negro  shall  not  enjoy  identical 
rights  and  privileges  with  the  rest  of 
his  fellow-citizens  would  be  equivalent 
to  the  re-enactment  of  the  discredited 
dogma  of  Judge  Taney.  Indeed,  the 
principle  involved  is  just  as  vital  to 
the  ideal  of  the  nation  today  as  it  was 
sixty  years  ago,  although  the  public 
conscience  may  be  less  keenly  alive 
to  it. 

The  war  amendments  to  the  Consti 
tution  reaffirmed  the  original  intention 
— that  there  should  be  no  race  distinc 
tion  recognized  by  the  national  gov 
ernment.  These  great  amendments 
written  into  the  Constitution  by  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  dipped  in  patri 
otic  blood  can  never  be  erased  nor 
their  purpose  ultimately  defeated. 
Race  discrimination  is  mentioned  only 
to  be  forbidden.  Mindful  of  the  ex 
istence  of  these  amendments,  the  states 
that  have  enacted  laws  repugnant  to 
their  spirit  and  letter,  have  sought  cir 
cumvention  by  cunningly  devised 
[59] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

phrases  and  tricky  contrivances. 
Every  such  revised  constitution  bears 
the  stamp  of  righteous  condemnation 
in  its  phraseology. 

The  American  people  for  two  gene 
rations  have  been  divided  in  local 
alignment  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
Negro  race  to  the  federal  government. 
The  South  has  always  been  opposed  to 
the  recognition  of  the  Negro  as  a  fed 
eral  citizen,  and  has  striven  inces 
santly  to  reduce  him  to  governmental 
nullity.  It  would  deny  him  both  the 
right  to  vote  and  the  privilege  of  hold 
ing  office.  Every  southern  senator 
voted  to  repeal  the  Fifteenth  Amend 
ment  when  that  proposition  was  added 
as  a  rider  to  important  legislation  be 
fore  Congress.  No  northern  senator 
voted  for  this  proposition,  because  it 
does  not  represent  the  spirit  or  pur 
pose  of  his  state  or  section.  The  pol 
icy  of  segregating  the  Negro  is  the  out 
growth  of  the  same  local  spirit.  The 
leaders  of  southern  thought  and  opin 
ion  do  not  hesitate  on  all  occasions  to 
[60] 


SEGREGATION 

declare  their  fixed  and  unalterable 
purpose  to  eliminate  the  Negro  from 
all  political  and  governmental  consid 
eration.  The  policy  is  well  under 
stood  and  accepted  as  the  political 
dogma  of  that  section. 

In  the  duel  for  national  supremacy 
between  the  North  and  South,  during 
the  generation  preceding  the  Civil 
War,  the  South  was  hopelessly  over 
matched.  Today  it  constitutes  less 
than  one-third  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  and  has  fallen  far  below 
its  former  rival  in  wealth,  education 
and  liberal  ideas.  This  is  in  no  sense 
a  reflection  upon  the  South,  which  has 
striven  heroically  to  measure  up  to  the 
standard  of  excellence  set  by  the 
North,  under  severe  and  serious  handi 
cap.  But  it  is  a  plain  statement  of 
palpable  fact  pertinent  to  the  issue 
now  under  discussion.  Massachu 
setts  and  Iowa,  rather  than  Mississippi 
and  Georgia,  embody  and  typify  the 
national  spirit.  The  southern  atti 
tude  on  the  race  question  has  become 
[61] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

provincial,  while  the  northern  position 
is  national. 

This  race  has  all  but  universally  fa 
vored  and  followed  the  part  of  the 
North.  The  anti-slavery  crusade  de 
veloped  in  the  North  against  the  pro- 
slavery  obsession  of  the  South ;  the  one 
upheld  the  cause  of  liberty  and  union ; 
the  other  was  devoted  to  secession  and 
slavery;  the  one  imbibed  the  spirit  of 
progress;  the  other,  that  of  reaction; 
the  one  stood  for  the  rights  of  man; 
the  other,  for  the  arrogance  of  race. 
The  Negro's  cause  was  caught  up  in 
the  vortex  of  the  whirlwind  of  patri 
otic  fervor,  sweeping  from  the  higher 
latitudes  and  lashing  itself  against  the 
barriers  of  the  lower  tiers  of  States. 
The  party  of  the  North  rode  trium 
phant  on  the  storm,  while  the  party  of 
the  South  bore  the  brunt  of  its  fury. 
Sections  and  parties  for  the  time  being 
became  connotative,  like  up  and  down 
in  ethics;  the  North  was  synonymous 
with  patriotism;  the  South,  with  dis 
loyalty.  To  the  mind  of  the  uncrit- 
[62] 


SEGREGATION 

ical  Negro,  the  North  and  the  friends 
of  the  Negro  race  were  one  and  insep 
arable  in  the  advocacy  of  all  of  his 
political  and  civil  rights,  while  the 
South  and  his  enemies  were  united  in 
the  bonds  of  iniquity  to  antagonize  his 
progress.  And  yet,  the  southern 
white  man's  attitude  toward  the  polit 
ical  status  of  the  Negro  has  always 
been  determined  by  circumstances  of 
racial  situation  rather  than  from  any 
abstract  theory  of  government.  His 
political  tenets  are  the  outcome  of  cir 
cumstances  and  environment  rather 
than  of  any  inherent  principle  of  party 
creed.  The  differentiating  principle, 
which  lies  deeper  than  lines  of  polit 
ical  division,  is  that  communities  with 
heavy  Negro  population  are  hostile  to 
political  and  civil  equality,  while 
those  with  thinly  scattered  numbers 
are  either  friendly  or  indifferent  to 
that  proposition.  There  is  no  psycho 
logical  division  of  the  white  race  de 
terminative  of  the  status  of  the  black 
member  within  their  midst. 
[63] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

It  is  imperative  that  the  federal 
statutes  should  be  forever  free  from 
race  proscription,  whatever  afflicted 
states  may  feel  forced  to  do  under  the 
pressure  of  acute  issues.  California, 
if  unrestrained,  might  pass  laws  for 
bidding  Japanese  ownership  of  land 
in  that  state,  but  this  would  furnish 
no  justification  for  the  federal  govern 
ment  to  sanction  or  adopt  such  policy. 

The  policy  of  social  separation  of 
the  races,  alleged  in  justification  of 
such  measures,  is  a  matter  with  which 
the  federal  government  has  nothing  to 
do.  The  intimate  social  and  personal, 
relationship  of  citizens  do  not  fall 
within  the  scope  or  purview  of  the  fed 
eral  authority.  Its  concern  is  with  the 
comprehensive  relations  of  all  citi-' 
zens.  Matters  of  minor  detail  are  left 
to  local  and  subordinate  jurisdictions. 

The  general  government  cannot  find 
warrant  for  such  action  in  the  example 
of  the  several  southern  states.  Dis 
criminatory  laws  in  the  states  are 
sought  to  be  justified  on  the  ground 
[64] 


SEGREGATION 

that  the  greater  number  of  Negroes  are 
unprepared  for  participation  in  gov 
ernment  or  for  free  intermingling  with 
the  whites  without  seriously  lowering 
the  tone  and  standard  of  civilization. 
The  federal  government  has  abso 
lutely  no  such  basis  of  excuse.  The 
Negro  represents  at  present  less  than 
eleven  percent  of  the  total  population. 
This  ratio  is  growing  less  with  the 
passing  of  the  decades.  So  far,  no 
state  with  so  slight  a  Negro  element  has 
deemed  it  necessary  to  adopt  a  code  of 
"Jim  Crow"  laws.  The  federal  gov 
ernment  leaves  each  citizen  socially 
where  it  finds  him. 

Those  who  advocate  the  policy  of 
segregation  permit  themselves  to  in 
dulge  in  the  fallacy  that  it  is  for  the 
best  advantage  of  the  Negro.  It  was 
once  said  that  slavery  was  best  for  the 
Negro;  later  we  heard  that  "Jim-Crow'* 
cars  were  enacted  especially  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Negro;  and  then  disfran- 
chisement  was  intended  for  his  well- 
being.  It  remains  for  some  grim  hu- 
[65] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

morist  to  rise  up  and  declare  that 
lynching  is  encouraged  for  the  black 
man's  peculiar  and  especial  benefit. 
It  does  seem  strange  that  iniquitous 
practices,  which  are  universally  con 
demned  by  mankind,  are  regarded  as 
for  the  best  welfare  of  the  Negro  race. 
When  the  Negro  contends  for  public 
equality,  he  is  often  accused  of  the  de 
sire  to  force  himself  into  association 
wherein  he  is  not  wanted.  If  this  were 
his  motive,  the  accusation  would  be 
justified.  If  Negroes  walk  on  the 
north  side  of  the  street  on  a  summer's 
afternoon,  it  is  not  because  they  desire 
to  force  association  with  whites  who 
occupy  the  same  thoroughfare,  but 
they  are  both  seeking  shelter  from  the 
scorching  rays  of  the  burning  sun,  and 
the  fact  that  they  are  thrown  together 
is  incidental  to  their  common  quest  of 
the  same  advantage.  When  the  Negro 
seeks  a  residence  where  white  people 
happen  to  live,  it  is  not  that  he  wishes 
to  force  himself  into  unwelcome  asso 
ciation.  The  whites,  representing  the 
[66] 


SEGREGATION 

more  numerous  and  wealthy  elements 
of  the  population,  are  apt  to  occupy 
the  more  advantageous  localities  and 
sections. 

The  Negro  is  in  quest  of  a  fair 
chance  to  work  out  his  own  destiny, 
and  to  contribute  his  share  to  the  com 
mon  honor  and  glory  of  the  nation. 
This  he  cannot  do  if  handicapped  and 
circumscribed  by  laws  separating  him 
from  the  rest  of  his  fellow  men.  Al 
ready  handicapped  by  tradition  and 
environment,  it  is  poor  sportsmanship 
on  the  part  of  his  white  fellow  citizens 
still  further  to  handicap  him  in  the 
race  of  life.  Equality  of  opportunity 
is  the  most  that  the  Negro  asks,  and  the 
least  that  a  democratic  nation  can  af 
ford  to  grant. 


[67] 


CHAPTER  IV 

NEGRO   PATRIOTISM   AND   DEVOTION 

PATRIOTISM  consists  in  the  love  of 
country,  the  love  of  home  and  of  the 
local  community.  It  is  essentially  an 
emotional  attribute.  The  Negro  is  en 
dowed  with  high  emotional  qualities 
which  find  outlet  in  outbursts  of  patri 
otic  fervor.  He  possesses  a  sense  of 
local  attachment  akin  to  that  which  the 
Jews  manifested  for  beloved  Zion. 
No  sooner  had  the  African  captive  for 
gotten  the  pang  caused  by  violent 
severance  from  his  native  land  than  he 
fell  in  love  with  the  land  of  his  cap 
tivity.  He  early  forgot  the  sunny 
clime  and  palmy  wine  of  the  native 
soil  for  the  "cotton,  corn  and  sweet 
potatoes"  of  Virginia.  The  trans 
planted  Negro  contributed  the  only 
[68] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

original  American  music  to  the  reper 
tory  of  song.  The  city  of  Jerusalem 
and  the  region  around  about  Jordan 
have  become  prototypes  of  the  land  of 
promise,  merely  because  the  humble 
people  who  lived  there  poured  out 
their  souls  in  joy  and  sorrow,  express 
ing  their  patriotic  attachment  as  tran 
scending  their  chief  joy.  The  Hebrew 
captive  hung  his  harp  upon  a  willow 
tree  and  refused  to  sing  the  songs  of 
Zion  in  a  strange  land.  But  the 
transplanted  African  has  glorified  the 
land  of  his  captivity  by  the  songs  of 
sorrow  which  sprang  from  his  heart. 
These  "spirituels"  are  but  the  expres 
sion  of  blind,  half-conscious  poetry, 
breaking  through  the  aperture  of 
sound  before  the  intellect  had  time  to 
formulate  a  definite  cast  of  statement. 
The  emotional  element  of  patriotism 
is  not  manifested  merely  in  epochs  and 
episodes  which  produce  renowned 
warriors  and  statesmen,  but  in  the  com 
mon  deeds  and  endearments  of  the 
humble  folk,  which  make  the  deepest 
[69] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

impression  upon  the  human  memory 
and  imagination.  It  is  the  folk  song 
which  manifests  the  folk  soul. 

The  red  Indian,  the  aboriginal 
owner  of  this  country,  has  left  no 
monument  of  enduring  patriotism  in- 
terpretable  in  terms  of  European 
thought  and  feeling.  Anomalously 
enough,  it  was  reserved  to  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  poet,  Longfellow,  to  catch  up 
the  thread  of  the  Indian's  patriotic  de 
votion  in  the  legend  of  Hiawatha,  and 
to  the  son  of  Africa,  S.  Coleridge  Tay 
lor,  to  give  it  musical  expression.  It 
is  difficult  to  describe  the  current  of 
feeling  that  flows  through  the  soul  of 
the  speculative  auditor  as  he  listens 
to  Negro  voices  in  a  choral  rendition 
of  Hiawatha,  uttering  with  lyric 
pathos  the  patriotic  soul  of  the  red  In 
dian,  as  portrayed  by  the  Anglo-Saxon 
poet,  and  colored  musically  by  the 
genius  of  the  African  composer. 

Robert  Burns,  the  national  poet  of 
Scotland,  has  seized  upon  the  joys  and 
sorrows,  the  deeds  and  endearments 
[70] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

of  the  humblest  cotters  of  that  land, 
and  woven  them  into  soulful  song 
which  has  made  old  Scotia  ever  dear 
to  human  memory  and  imagination. 
Who  would  not  gladly  go  to  the  ex 
pense  of  a  European  trip  in  order  to 
retrace  the  steps  of  the  immortalized 
Tarn  O'Shanter,  or  to  review  the  scene 
of  Mary — poor,  departed  shade? 

If  human  memory  and  imagination 
ever  turn  to  our  Southland  with  a  pas 
sionate  yearning  for  a  manifestation 
of  the  outpouring  of  the  human  spirit, 
it  will  not  be  in  quest  of  the  deeds  and 
doings  of  renowned  warriors  and 
statesmen,  but  rather  in  quest  of  the 
songs  and  sorrows  and  soul  strivings 
of  humble  black  folk  embodied  in 
plantation  melodies.  "Swanee  River," 
"My  Old  Kentucky  Home,"  and 
"Carry  Me  Back  to  Ole  Virginny," 
spiritualize  these  regions  beyond  any 
other  expression  which  they  have  yet 
evoked.  Even  the  motif  of  the  musi 
cal  inspiration  of  the  southern  Con 
federacy,  the  world-renowned  "Dixie," 
[71] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

was  but  the  embellishment  of  the  ex 
pression  of  longing  of  a  Negro  for  his 
homeland,  where  he  was  born  "on  an 
autumn  day  and  a  frosty  morning." 
Which  of  America's  patriotic  songs 
would  we  not  willingly  exchange  for 
"Swing  Low,  Sweet  Chariot,"  or  "Steal 
Away  to  Jesus"?  There  is  no  tone  of 
bitterness  in  these  songs.  On  the  con 
trary,  an  undertone  of  love  and  devo 
tion  runs  like  a  minor  chord  through 
them  all.  The  plantation  melodies 
which  have  come  up  from  the  low 
grounds  of  sorrow  portray  in  sub-con 
scious  form  the  patriotic  as  well  as 
emotional  capacity  of  this  transplanted 
race. 

They  sometimes  tell  us  that  America 
is  a  white  man's  country.  The  state 
ment  is  understandable  in  light  of  the 
fact  that  the  white  race  constitutes 
nine-tenths  of  its  population,  and 
exerts  the  controlling  influence  over 
the  various  forms  of  material  and  sub 
stantial  wealth  and  power.  But  this 
land  belongs  to  the  Negro  as  much  as 
[72] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

to  any  other,  not  only  because  he  has 
helped  redeem  it  from  the  wilderness 
by  the  energy  of  his  arm,  but  because 
he  has  bathed  it  in  his  blood,  watered 
it  with  his  tears,  and  hallowed  it  with 
the  yearnings  of  his  soul. 

The  Negro's  patriotism  is  vicarious 
and  altruistic.  It  seems  to  be  an  ano 
maly  of  fate  that  the  Negro,  the  man 
of  all  men  who  is  held  in  despite, 
should  stand  out  in  conspicuous  relief 
at  every  crisis  of  our  national  history. 
His  blood  offering  is  not  for  himself 
or  for  his  race,  but  for  his  country. 
His  blood  flows  like  a  stream  through 
our  national  history,  from  Boston 
Commons  to  Carrizal.  Crispus  At- 
tucks  was  the  first  American  to  give 
his  blood  as  an  earnest  of  American 
independence.  His  statue  on  Boston 
Common  stands  as  a  mute  reminder  of 
the  vicarious  virtues  of  a  transplanted 
race.  The  Negro  was  with  Washing 
ton  in  the  dark  days  of  Valley  Forge, 
when  the  lamp  of  national  liberty  flick 
ered  almost  to  extinguishment.  The 
[73] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

black  troops  fought  gallantly  with 
Jackson  behind  the  fleecy  breastworks 
at  New  Orleans.  Two  hundred  thou 
sand  black  boys  in  blue  responded  to 
the  call  of  the  immortal  Lincoln  for 
the  preservation  of  the  Union.  The 
Negro  was  the  positive  cause  of  the 
Civil  War  and  the  negative  cause  of 
the  united  nation  with  which  we  face 
the  world  today. 

The  reckless  daring  of  Negro  troops 
on  San  Juan  hill  marked  the  turning 
point  in  that  struggle  which  drove  the 
last  vestige  of  Spanish  power  from 
the  western  world.  The  nation  buried 
with  grateful  honor  at  Arlington 
cemetery  the  Negro  soldiers  who  fell 
face  forward  while  carrying  the  flag 
to  the  farthest  point  in  the  heart  of 
Mexico,  in  quest  of  the  bandit  who 
dared  place  hostile  foot  on  American 
soil.  In  complete  harmony  with  this 
splendid  patriotic  record,  it  so  hap 
pened  that  it  was  an  American  Negro 
who  proved  to  be  the  first  victim  of 
ruthless  submarine  warfare  after 
[74] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

President  Wilson  had  distinctly  an 
nounced  to  Germany  that  the  continu 
ance  of  such  outrage  would  be  con 
sidered  tantamount  to  war.  In  all  of 
these  ways  has  the  Negro  shown,  pur 
posely  or  unconsciously,  his  undevi- 
ating  association  with  the  glory  and 
honor  of  the  nation.  Greater  love 
hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay 
down  his  life  for  his  country. 

It  is  related  that  a  Negro  soldier  was 
in  hot-footed  pursuit  of  a  Mexican  who 
had  crossed  the  border  line.  The 
captain,  noticing  the  pursuit,  called  a 
sharp  retreat  as  the  line  of  demarca 
tion  was  approached.  Upon  his  re 
turn,  the  captain  said  in  a  commenda 
tory  tone:  "You  certainly  gave  him 
a  hot  chase,  but,  you  know,  you  must 
not  cross  the  international  boundary 
line."  Thereupon  the  powder-col 
ored  son  of  thunder  quickly  re 
sponded:  "Captain,  if  these  Mexi 
cans  keep  on  fooling  with  us,  we'll 
take  up  this  international  boundary 
line  and  carry  it  down  to  the  Panama 
[75] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

Canal."  This  reply,  so  aptly  spoken, 
expresses  the  attitude  of  every  right 
minded  Afro-American.  Wherever 
the  boundary  line  of  American  oppor 
tunity,  privilege  and  prestige  is  to  be 
flung,  the  American  Negro  will  do  his 
full  share  in  pushing  it  thitherward. 

The  Negro's  vicarious  patriotism  is 
but  one  form  of  manifestation  of  his 
vicarious  nature.  The  devotion  of  the 
black  mammy  to  the  offspring  of  her 
mistress  gives  a  new  meaning  and  defi 
nition  to  that  term.  Out  of  the  super 
abundance  of  her  simple,  unsophisti 
cated  soul  she  was  able  to  satisfy  the 
needs  of  the  child  of  her  heart,  though 
not  of  her  flesh,  as  nothing  else  could 
do.  The  man-slave,  during  the  Civil 
War,  in  complete  reversion  of  the  law 
of  self-interest,  remained  absolutely 
loyal  to  the  family  and  fortune  of  his 
master,  who  at  that  very  time  was 
fighting  to  tighten  the  chains  that 
bound  him  to  lasting  bondage. 

Though  not  often  proclaimed,  it  is 
a  well  known  fact  that  several  colored 
[76] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

regiments  enlisted  under  the  banner 
of  the  Confederacy.  Had  the  Rich 
mond  government  carried  out  its  ten 
tative  purpose  to  enlist  Negro  soldiers 
on  a  wholesale  plan,  there  is  little 
doubt  but  that  colored  soldiers  would 
have  followed  the  leadership  of  Lee  as 
valiantly  as  they  did  that  of  Grant. 
This  altruistic  quality  of  loyalty  and 
devotion  is  not  destroyed  by  freedom 
and  education,  but  translated  and  ex 
pressed  in  other  terms. 

Fifty  years  after  the  glorious  vic 
tory  at  Appomattox,  the  lingering 
remnants  of  the  boys  in  blue  marched 
down  Pennsylvania  Avenue  in  the  city 
of  Washington,  in  semi-centennial  cele 
bration  of  that  great  event.  There 
was  not  a  dry  eye  on  that  Avenue,  as 
white  and  black  veterans,  broken  with 
the  weight  of  years,  marched  with 
feeble  tread  to  the  reminiscent  strains 
of  friendly  reunion:  "Should  Auld 
Acquaintance  Be  Forgot?"  One  year 
later  the  rapidly  thinning  ranks  of 
those  who  followed  the  fortune  of  the 
[77] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

Confederacy  marched  down  the  same 
thoroughfare  in  celebration  of  their 
triumphant  defeat.  There  was  a 
noticeable  intersprinkling  of  Negroes 
in  their  ranks  also.  The  Negro's  par 
ticipation  in  these  two  parades  epito 
mizes  and  expresses  both  his  self-inter 
ested  and  his  altruistic  patriotism. 

Ethnic  character  is  too  deep-rooted 
to  be  transformed  by  a  political  pro 
gram.  The  Christ-like  quality  of 
long-suffering,  forgiveness  of  spirit 
and  loving-kindness  is  a  natural  co 
efficient  of  the  Negro's  nature. 
Booker  Washington  merely  embodied 
and  expressed  the  folk  sense  of  his 
race  when  he  said:  "No  man  could 
be  so  mean  as  to  make  me  hate  him." 
The  Negro,  in  the  issue  now  upon  us, 
will  not  sulk  in  his  tent,  nursing  his 
grievances,  like  Achilles  before  the 
walls  of  Troy.  He  has  no  quarrel 
with  the  Germans.  But  he  is  fighting 
at  the  behest  of  his  country.  It  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  if  the  German  gov 
ernment,  supposing  that  the  Negro 
[78] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

holds  animosity  and  resentment  with 
the  stubbornness  of  the  Teuton,  should 
judge  that  he  might  furnish  a  fertile 
field  in  which  to  sow  the  seed  of  traitor 
ous  disloyalty.  But  such  seed  falls 
on  stony  ground.  There  is  no  depth 
of  earth  in  the  Negro's  nature  for  its 
nourishment.  The  Negro  will  not 
deny  or  belittle  his  just  grievances. 
He  simply  holds  them  in  abeyance  un 
til  the  war  is  ended. 

If  it  be  a  political  as  it  is  a  sacred 
principle  that  without  the  shedding  of 
blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins, 
when  we  consider  the  blood  of  the 
African  captive  making  red  the  At 
lantic  Ocean  on  his  way  to  cruel  bond 
age,  the  blood  of  the  slave  drawn  by 
the  lash,  the  blood  of  the  black  soldier 
shed  in  behalf  of  his  country,  we  can 
say  with  Kipling:  "If  blood  be  the 
price  of  liberty,  Lord  God!  the  Negro 
has  paid  in  full." 

At  such  a  time  as  this,  when  the  na 
tional  life  and  honor  are  involved  in 
the  prevailing  struggle,  the  govern- 
[79] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

ment  must  make  careful  appraisement 
of  all  available  resources  of  both  men 
and  material.  Mind  power,  man 
power  and  money  power  are  the  indis 
pensable  elements  of  success.  The 
Negro,  constituting  one-tenth  of  the 
population,  may  be  relied  upon  to  con 
tribute  more  than  his  quota  of  man 
power.  There  need  not  be  the  slight 
est  apprehension  concerning  his 
loyalty,  soldierly  efficiency  or  willing 
ness  to  serve  his  country.  The  Negro 
is  sometimes  called  the  Afro-Ameri 
can,  and  classified  etymologically  with 
the  hyphenated  citizens.  But  no 
hyphen  separates  his  loyalty  from  that 
of  his  white  fellow  citizens. 

The  Negro's  patriotism  is  an  innate 
and  spontaneous  feeling.  The  race  is 
endowed  with  emotional  qualities 
which  find  outlet  in  an  outburst  of 
patriotic  fervor.  Strains  of  martial 
music  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  float 
ing  on  the  breeze  quicken  his  ardor 
and  awaken  his  militant  spirit.  He 
does  not  stop  to  reason  why,  but  is 
[80] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

willing  to  follow  the  flag  even  unto 
death.  He  has  also  an  attachment  for 
locality  which  is  the  very  essence  of 
patriotism.  He  has  hallowed  the 
land  of  his  enslavement  by  the  sorrow 
songs  that  gushed  from  his  heart. 
There  is  no  tone  of  bitterness,  but  an 
undertone  of  love  and  devotion  runs 
as  a  minor  chord  through  it  all. 

"To  the  victor  belong  the  spoils"  is 
a  righteous  and  just  motto  if  the  spoils 
be  liberty.  Those  who  fight  for  the 
honor  and  glory  of  the  flag  are 
worthy  of  a  full  measure  of  freedom 
and  privilege  under  that  flag.  No 
right-minded  American  will  care  to 
dispute  this  proposition,  and  none  will 
dare  refute  it.  The  reverse  of  this 
proposition  is  also  true.  No  class 
that  refuses  to  defend  the  flag  in  the 
hour  of  peril  has  any  just  claim  to  its 
protection  in  time  of  peace.  The 
present  war  is  a  struggle  for  democ 
racy;  for  the  uplifting  and  ennoble 
ment  of  the  man  farthest  down.  Ra 
cial  and  religious  barriers  are  being 
[81] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

swept  away.  Christian  and  heathen, 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  Jew  and  Gen 
tile,  Asiatic  and  European,  African 
and  Aryan  are  all  involved  in  one 
titanic  struggle  for  freedom  and  hu 
manity. 

The  world  is  engulfed  in  the  red 
ruin  of  war.  The  present  conflict  is 
not  due  to  the  inherent  deviltry  of  one 
nation  or  the  innate  goodness  of  the 
other.  The  cumulative  ethical  ener 
gies  of  society  for  generations  have 
been  damned  up  by  barriers  of  hatred 
and  greed.  They  seek  outlet  through 
the  easiest  crevice.  The  stored-up 
power  is  now  breaking  through  the 
barrier  as  a  cataclysmic  convulsion  of 
nations.  The  foundations  of  social 
order  are  being  undermined  by  the 
shocks  of  doom.  As  an  outcome  of 
the  war,  the  re-adjustment  of  the  social 
structure  will  be  more  radical  than 
that  effected  by  the  French  Revolution. 
The  transforming  effect  upon  the 
status  of  the  Negro  will  be  scarcely  less 
[82] 


NEGRO  PATRIOTISM 

momentous  than  that  produced  by  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation. 

The  democratization  of  the  world, 
coined  as  a  fitting  phrase,  will  be 
translated  into  actuality.  The  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  penned  by  a 
slaveholder,  sounded  the  death  knell 
of  slavery,  although  three  quarters  of 
a  century  elapsed  between  promise 
and  fulfilment.  The  democratization 
of  the  world  is  but  a  restatement  of 
this  doctrine  in  terms  of  the  present 
day.  Political  autocracy  and  racial 
autocracy  will  be  buried  in  the  same 
grave.  The  divine  right  of  kings  and 
the  divine  right  of  race  will  suffer  a 
common  fate.  Hereafter  no  nation, 
however  strong,  will  be  permitted  to 
override  a  weaker  neighbor  by  sheer 
dominance  of  power;  and  no  race  will 
be  permitted  to  impose  an  unjust  and 
ruthless  regime  upon  the  weaker 
breeds  of  men  through  assumption  of 
race  superiority. 

The  people  of  all  lands  who  are 
[83] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

heavy  laden  and  overborne  will  be  the 
chief  beneficiaries  of  this  war.  The 
Negro  problem  is  involved  in  the  prob 
lem  of  humanity.  The  whole  is 
greater  than  any  of  its  parts.  The 
Negro  will  share  in  the  general  mo 
mentum  imparted  to  social  welfare. 

The  Negro  has  been  politically  dis 
franchised  in  the  South  and  indus 
trially  disfranchised  in  the  North. 
Already  he  has  been  admitted  to  in 
dustrial  opportunity  in  the  North  with 
manifest  reflex  action  upon  the  harsh 
regime  in  the  South.  National  prohi 
bition,  which  is  borne  forward  on  the 
wave  of  the  world  war,  will  immensely 
improve  his  moral  status. 

Thousands  of  Negroes  have  been  en 
listed,  and  seven  hundred  Negroes 
have  been  commissioned  as  officers  in 
the  army  of  the  United  States.  A 
Negro  has  been  made  assistant  cabinet 
officer  whose  function  is  to  adjust  har 
moniously  the  race's  relation  to  the 
impending  struggle.  The  improved 
attitude  of  the  white  race  towards  the 
[84] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

Negro  is  apparent  in  two  affirmative 
decisions  rendered  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  with  unan 
imous  concurrence. 

The  Negro  will  emerge  from  this 
war  with  a  redoubled  portion  of  privi 
lege  and  opportunity.  The  Negro 
will  be  loyal  and  patriotic,  despite 
injustices  and  discriminations  which 
try  his  soul.  If  he  prevails,  these 
trials  and  tribulations  will  work  out 
a  more  exceeding  weight  of  ad 
vantage.  But  if  he  allows  them  to 
overcome  him,  woeful  will  be  his  lot 
indeed!  To  stand  sulkily  by  in  re 
sentful  aloofness  would  be  of  the  same 
kind  of  folly  as  to  refuse  to  help  ex 
tinguish  a  conflagration  which  threat 
ens  the  destruction  of  one's  native  city, 
because  he  has  a  complaint  against  the 
fire  department.  The  Negro  will  help 
put  out  the  conflagration  which  threat 
ens  the  world,  and  thus  make  the  world 
his  lasting  debtor.  He  will  stand 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  his  white 
fellow  citizens  to  fight  for  the  freedom 
[85] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

of  the  world  outside  of  our  own  na 
tional  circle,  and  then  hold  them  to 
moral  consistency  of  maintaining  a 
just  and  equitable  regime  inside  of 
that  circle. 

The  tide  of  democracy  is  sweeping 
through  the  world  like  a  mighty  river. 
Race  problems  and  social  ills  are  as 
marshes,  backwaters,  stagnant  pools, 
estuaries,  which  have  been  shut  off 
from  free  circulation  with  the  main 
current.  But  the  freshet  of  freedom 
is  now  overflowing  its  bed  and  purify 
ing  all  the  stagnant  waters  in  its  on 
ward  sweep  to  the  ocean  of  human 
liberty  and  brotherhood,  bearing  upon 
its  beneficent  bosom  all  those  who 
labor  and  are  overborne. 


[86] 


CHAPTER  V 

RIGHTEOUSNESS 

THE  presence  of  the  weaker  race  in 
the  midst  of  a  stronger  is  apt  to  develop 
the  evil  propensities  on  the  part  of  the 
stronger.  The  same  moral  code  is  not 
applied  to  the  weaker  race.  The  an 
cient  limitation  of  ethics  which  in 
cludes  in  its  ennobling  bond  only  one's 
neighbor  is  made  to  apply.  Ethics 
takes  on  ethnic  quality.  Herein  con 
sists  the  inherent  nature  of  the  evil 
growing  out  of  the  contact  of  diver 
gent  races.  Man  is  always  prone  to 
justify  his  unrighteous  deeds  by  claim 
ing  that  the  object  of  his  despite  does 
not  belong  to  the  same  ethical  regime 
as  himself.  This  is  the  attitude  which 
the  Jew  is  wont  to  exhibit  toward  the 
Gentile,  rich  toward  poor,  white  to- 
[87]  ' 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

ward  black.  All  of  the  discrimina 
tion  against  the  Negro  rests  on  this 
basis.  He  was  brought  to  this  coun 
try  as  a  slave  because  he  was  not  con 
sidered  of  the  same  moral  order  as  the 
white  man.  He  is  disfranchised  and 
segregated  and  lynched  for  the  same 
reason. 

The  supremacy  of  science  rests 
upon  the  inexorability  of  natural  law 
which  pays  no  heed  to  the  prejudices 
and  predilections  of  man.  The  law 
of  gravitation  and  the  binomial 
theorem  apply  with  absolute  impar 
tiality  to  all  men,  everywhere  and  at 
all  times.  They  admit  of  no  ethnic 
variation  to  accommodate  human  arro 
gance  or  caprice.  By  those  who  un 
derstand  the  principles  of  these  laws, 
the  prediction  of  their  outcome  may  be 
relied  upon  with  undeviating  certainty. 
According  to  the  foundation  of  Chris 
tian  ethics,  moral  principles  are  as 
absolute  in  nature  as  natural  law. 
The  Ten  Commandments,  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  and  the  Golden  Rule  are 
[88] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

as  universal  and  impartial  in  their 
operation  as  the  fixed  principle  in 
natural  or  physical  science.  Just  as 
we  could  have  no  science  of  chemistry 
if  the  atoms  could  be  made  to  obey 
one  law  to  suit  the  racial  pretensions 
of  the  Germans,  and  another  to  suit  the 
Japanese,  so  our  moral  scheme  is  frus 
trated  where  the  same  formula  is  in 
terpreted  according  to  the  manner  of 
man  to  which  it  is  to  be  applied. 

A  double  standard  in  morals  is 
as  dangerous  as  a  double  standard 
in  mathematics.  A  democracy  that 
deals  in  double  standards  for  its  citi 
zens  is  doomed.  Identity  is  the  es 
sence  of  equality  in  all  public  func 
tions.  Two  non-interchangeable  parts 
cannot  long  maintain  their  original 
parity.  There  cannot  be  a  different 
standard  of  weights  and  measures  for 
the  two  races.  A  double  yardstick 
would  be  an  abomination  to  common 
sense.  Although  a  sagacious  states 
manship  might  decree  that  the  two 
yardsticks  should  have  the  same 
[89] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

length,  and  that  the  racial  pounds 
should  have  the  same  weight,  under 
the  imperfections  of  human  nature 
the  Negro  would  soon  be  receiving  the 
shorter  measure  and  the  lighter  weight. 
If  there  were  two  standards  of  coinage 
of  the  same  weight  and  fineness  for 
the  two  races,  provided  only  that  one 
set  should  for  ever  circulate  among 
Negroes  and  the  other  among  whites, 
the  black  man's  coinage  would  imme 
diately  depreciate  in  value.  Parity 
can  only  be  maintained  by  free  inter- 
changeability.  The  criterion  of  a 
standard  of  value  consists  of  its  easy 
currency  and  universal  acceptance. 
The  merchant  who  has  one  set  of 
prices  for  the  Negro  and  another  for 
his  white  customers  is  considered  dis 
honest.  The  physician  who  would 
treat  his  white  patient  according  to 
one  formula  and  his  Negro  patient  with 
the  same  ailment  according  to  another 
would  violate  the  integrity  of  the  sci 
ence  of  therapeutics.  The  double 
moral  standard  of  which  the  Negro  is 
[90] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

made  the  victim  is  manifest  in  the 
white  man's  general  attitude  towards 
him.  To  mistreat  a  Negro  is  not 
deemed  a  violation  of  the  moral  code. 
Even  to  kill  a  Negro  is  not  considered 
a  serious  offence  on  the  part  of  the 
white  man  in  many  sections  of  the 
country.  So  general  has  become  this 
attitude  and  practice  that  the  governor 
of  a  southern  state  in  a  notable  procla 
mation  stated  that  the  open  season  for 
killing  Negroes  has  closed  in  his  state. 
Of  the  thousands  and  scores  of  thou 
sands  of  Negroes  who  have  been  mur 
dered  in  the  South,  few  indeed  are  the 
instances  where  the  perpetrator  has 
been  brought  to  justice.  But  where 
the  race  relation  is  reversed  and  the 
Negro  kills  a  white  man,  condign  pun 
ishment  is  swift  and  sure.  That  mur 
der  is  murder  by  whomever  committed 
ought  to  be  an  axiomatic  assertion. 
But  in  actual  experience  murder  is  not 
murder  where  the  perpetrator  is  white 
and  the  victim  is  black. 

The  impression  which  this  attitude 
[91] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

leaves  on  the  mind  of  the  Negro  is  ob 
vious.  He  is  forced  to  feel  that  he  is 
a  moral  alien,  and  is  not  considered  a 
part  of  the  ennobling  bond  of  human 
sympathy.  It  would  seem  that  en 
lightened  self-interest  on  the  part  of 
the  white  race  would  lead  them  to  hold 
up  to  the  Negro  the  beneficent  meaning 
and  purpose  of  the  law  through  its  just 
and  impartial  enforcement.  This  is 
the  practice  of  the  English  government 
in  dealing  with  the  natives  in  its  col 
onies.  In  Bermuda  and  Jamaica  the 
Negro  swears  absolutely  by  the  integ 
rity  of  British  law,  because  it  is  en 
forced  impartially  on  white  and  black 
alike,  without  the  slightest  suggestion 
of  a  double  standard.  But  the  Negro 
in  the  South  no  longer  expects  the  im 
partial  enforcement  of  the  law  where 
the  feelings  and  passion  of  the  white 
race  are  involved;  and,  consequently, 
he  is  led  to  look  upon  the  law  not  as 
an  instrument  for  preserving  justice 
between  man  and  man,  but  as  a  device 
for  keeping  him  in  subjection  and  sub- 
[92]  ' 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

ordination  to  the  white  race.  The 
Negro  appeals  to  the  white  man  to  en 
force  his  own  law.  It  is  a  poor 
sportsman  who  will  not  play  the  game 
according  to  the  rules,  especially  when 
he  makes  the  rules.  The  white  man 
boasts  of  his  God-given  right  to  rule, 
but  he  should  prove  his  right  to  rule 
by  ruling  right. 

A  nation  that  would  endure  must 
base  its  conduct  upon  the  law  of 
Righteousness.  Moral  grandeur  is 
more  enduring  than  material  exploita 
tion.  A  nation,  like  an  individual, 
that  walketh  uprightly,  walketh  se 
curely,  because  the  centre  of  gravity 
falls  inside  the  basis  of  support. 
Without  fixed  moral  purpose,  a  nation, 
like  a  pyramid  resting  on  its  apex,  is 
in  unstable  equilibrium. 

Abraham  Lincoln  possessed  the 
clearest  understanding  of  any  Ameri 
can  statesman  before  or  since  his  time. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  moral  geniuses 
of  the  human  race.  He  had  an  un 
clouded  vision  of  moral  values  and  an 
[93] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

intuitive  conception  of  ethical  relation 
ships.  Our  great  national  savior 
told  us  that  this  nation  was  conceived 
in  liberty  and  dedicated  to  the  propo 
sition  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 
A  nation  that  falls  below  the  level  of 
its  fundamental  ideals  and  goes  in 
quest  of  false  idols  cannot  hope  to 
escape  the  fate  of  all  apostate  peoples 
of  whom  history  makes  record.  God 
has  given  to  America  the  moral  oppor 
tunity  to  become  the  leader  among  the 
nations  of  the  world  along  the  line  of 
national  rectitude.  Great  will  be  its 
condemnation  if,  for  any  reason,  it 
fails  to  live  up  to  this  great  oppor 
tunity. 

Moral  reforms  grow  out  of  the  peo 
ple  who  suffer  and  stand  in  need  of 
them.  All  of  the  moral  progress  of 
the  race  has  been  due  to  the  circum 
stances  and  conditions  of  the  humble 
and  the  lowly.  God  has  chosen  the 
humble  things  of  life  to  confound  the 
mighty.  The  whole  course  of  Ameri 
can  history  has  been  given  moral  trend 
[94] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

and  direction  by  reason  of  the  pres 
ence  of  the  despised,  neglected  and 
rejected  Negro.  The  Revolutionary 
statesmen,  at  a  time  when  the  question 
of  African  slavery  had  hardly  become 
a  keen  moral  issue,  endeavored  to 
ignore  cognizance  of  the  presence  of 
the  Negro.  His  unfortunate  status, 
however,  could  not  be  obliterated  in 
their  subconsciousness,  and  so  he  seri 
ously  influenced  the  laws  and  statutes 
of  that  day.  Like  the  victim  who  tries 
to  conceal  the  gnawings  of  a  vital  dis 
ease,  they  affected  to  ignore  the  griev 
ous  evil  which  they  inwardly  felt. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  great  statesman 
of  that  epoch,  said  that  when  he  con 
templated  the  institution  of  African 
slavery  he  trembled  for  his  country, 
feeling  assured  that  God's  justice 
could  not  sleep  for  ever.  The  Decla 
ration  of  Independence  and  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  made  no 
avowed  reference  to  the  presence  of 
the  African,  although,  at  the  time,  he 
constituted  one-fifth  of  the  total  popu- 
[95] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

lation.  It  was  clearly  in  the  minds  of 
the  far-seeing  founders  of  this  nation 
that,  through  some  process  of  self- 
purification  which  they  could  not  fully 
divine,  American  institutions  ulti 
mately  would  exemplify  the  principle 
of  Righteousness  for  all  men  amenable 
to  their  control.  They  laid  the  foun 
dation  upon  the  bedrock  principles  of 
equality  and  justice,  feeling  that  fu 
ture  generations  would  build  upon  no 
foundation  other  than  that  which  they 
had  laid. 

The  principles  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  led  to  disquietude  of 
the  national  conscience  over  the  issue 
of  African  slavery.  The  leaven  of 
liberty  worked  the  nation  into  a  moral 
ferment,  which  resulted  in  the  Civil 
War  and  the  emancipation  of  the 
slave.  This  was  the  greatest  moral 
victory  which  the  nation  has  ever 
achieved  over  itself.  The  triumph 
was  universal  and  complete.  African 
slavery,  at  first  accepted  with  compla 
cency  by  the  Christian  conscience,  be- 
[96] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

came  quickened  into  a  moral  issue  by 
a  few  minds  of  keener  ethical  discern 
ment,  and  plunged  the  nation  into  frat 
ricidal  strife  over  a  question  of  right 
and  wrong.  The  right  prevailed. 
The  proponents  of  the  lost  cause  now 
congratulate  themselves  over  their  de 
feat,  while  erroneously  espousing  the 
wrong  side  of  a  moral  issue.  By 
unanimous  concurrence  the  nation  has 
accepted  the  principle  of  Righteous 
ness  so  far  as  human  slavery  is  con 
cerned. 

We  are  not  yet  far  enough  removed 
from  the  prejudices  and  passions  of 
that  moral  revolution  to  appraise 
justly  or  appreciate  fully  its  influence 
and  effect  upon  the  nation's  character. 
It  is  the  one  outstanding  epochal  event 
in  our  national  life  upon  which  all  of 
the  people  can  look  with  unalloyed 
satisfaction.  When  the  kindly  propi 
tiation  of  time  shall  have  completely 
obliterated  the  memory  of  the  pangs 
of  the  awful  divisive  issues  of  that 
titanic  struggle,  the  culmination  of  the 
[97] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

quickening  of  the  American  con 
science  will  be  set  forth  in  dramatic 
portrayal.  John  Brown  will  be  the 
hero.  Garrison,  Grant,  Lee  and  Lin 
coln  will  play  important  roles.  Os- 
sawatomie  and  Gettysburg  and  Appo- 
mattox  will  be  available  for  scenery 
and  situation.  The  scene  of  the 
crowning  act  will  be  set  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  Here  nature  piled  the  sur 
rounding  mountains  as  a  fitting  back 
ground.  The  blue  skies  of  West  Vir 
ginia  shall  be  the  uplifted  curtain, 
while  the  confluent  waters  of  the  Po 
tomac  and  Shenandoah  shall  represent 
the  flood  of  tears  that  the  nation  will 
shed  at  the  pity  and  pathos  of  it  all. 
John  Brown  on  the  scaffold,  pouring 
out  his  life  for  a  race  alien  in  blood 
and  culture  to  his  own,  illustrates  the 
highest  point  of  moral  sublimity  that 
this  planet  has  witnessed  since  Jesus 
Christ  hung  on  the  Cross.  That  scaf 
fold  is  both  the  antetype  and  prototype 
of  the  moral  history  of  America. 
The  Civil  War  marked  the  highest 
[98] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

practical  expression  of  the  national 
conscience.  It  required  the  Thirteenth 
and  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amend 
ments  to  make  our  Constitution  a  char 
ter  of  liberty  indeed.  All  of  this  was 
brought  to  pass  because  of  the  presence 
and  helpless  condition  of  the  Negro  in 
our  midst.  Every  modification  of 
state  or  national  constitution  that  has 
been  made  involving  the  complaint  of 
the  Negro  has  been  in  the  direction  of 
righteousness  and  moral  grandeur. 
On  the  other  hand,  every  alteration 
that  has  been  made  in  local  institu 
tions  limiting  the  just  rights  of  the  Ne 
gro  has  been  contrary  to  the  principles 
of  Righteousness  and  has  led  ulti 
mately  to  the  reproach  of  those  enact 
ing  them.  Posterity  will  take  no 
pride  in  the  deeds  of  this  day  which 
deprive  the  humblest  citizen  of  his 
human  rights  in  order  that  others  may 
enjoy  a  larger  measure  of  easement. 

Righteousness  means  more  to  the 
weak  than  it  does  to  the  strong.     The 
strong  nation  may,  for  a  time,  seem  to 
[99] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

succeed  in  violation  of  the  principle 
of  Righteousness.  It  may  be  carried 
forward  by  an  already  acquired  mo 
mentum,  but  the  weak  have  no  other 
reliance.  We  praise  the  sheep  for  his 
supposedly  moral  qualities  of  meek 
ness,  humility  and  forgiveness  of 
spirit.  We  denounce  the  wolf  for  his 
savagery  and  ferocity  of  disposition. 
And  yet,  if  we  could  analyze  the  work 
ings  of  the  minds  of  the  two  according 
to  an  exact  psychological  test,  the 
sheep  would  be  found  to  be  no  whit 
superior  in  inherent  moral  quality 
and  essence  to  the  wolf.  He  is  just 
as  cruel  and  exacting  over  all  crea 
tures  with  whom  he  has  the  advantage 
as  the  wolf  is  over  him.  They  both 
follow  the  law  of  nature,  in  total  ob 
livion  of  the  law  of  Righteousness. 
But  since  the  sheep  is  the  weaker  ani 
mal  and  the  inevitable  victim  in  the 
contest,  we  ascribe  to  him  the  moral 
advantage. 

When  Belgium  felt  she  was  a  pow 
erful  land,  she,  through  her  monarch, 
[100] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

laid  violent  hand  upon  a  far-off  Afri 
can  region  and  injected  a  ruthless 
regime  upon  die  natives. of  the  Cojigjo, 
an  act  which  brought  down  upon  lier 
head  the  moral  condemnation  of  the 
civilized  world.  But,  on  a  day,  a 
stronger  power  laid  a  ruthless  hand 
upon  Belgium,  and  transformed  her 
strength  unto  weakness,  and,  in  her 
helpless  and  pitiful  plight,  she  now 
appeals  to  the  moral  sympathy  and 
support  of  the  world. 

The  Jewish  race  throughout  its  his 
tory  stood  constantly  in  need  of  vica 
rious  political  salvation,  and  was  thus 
enabled  to  teach  the  world  the  need 
of  a  vicarious  spiritual  Savior.  Na 
tions,  like  individuals,  are  prone  to 
follow  the  law  of  nature,  and  rely 
upon  the  dominance  of  power  until 
checked  by  a  superior  power.  It  is 
then  that  the  weaker  power  invokes  the 
beneficence  of  ethical  consideration. 
The  basic  complaint  against  the  Ger 
man  people  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
are  boastfully  exploiting  their  ac- 
[101] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

knowledged  superior  military  effi 
ciency  over  weaker  nations  without 
heed  to  the  moral  law.  .It  is  interest 
ing  to  note .  .die  parallelism  of  argu 
ment  of  the  German  philosophers  who 
justify  their  ruthless  dominance  over 
weaker  European  peoples,  and  that  of 
our  American  publicists  who  strive  to 
justify  the  lordship  of  the  white  man 
over  the  Negro. 

Righteousness,  like  money,  has  an 
inherent  value  and  a  relative  value. 
A  coin  has  a  fixed  value,  according  to 
its  weight  and  fineness,  which  means 
just  as  much  to  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefel 
ler  as  to  the  humblest  washerwoman. 
But,  relatively,  it  means  immensely 
more  to  the  washerwoman  who  may  be 
dependent  upon  it  to  pay  her  weekly 
rental  than  it  does  to  Mr.  Rockefeller, 
in  comparison  to  whose  wealth  it  is  a 
negligible  quantity.  So  it  is  with 
moral  qualities.  While  they  have  in 
herent  and  intrinsic  values,  yet  they 
mean  most  to  the  people  who  stand 
mostly  in  need  of  them. 
[102] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

The  Negro  today  stands  mostly  in 
of  the  principles  of  public  Right- 

usness  because  of  his  humble  situa- 
on.  But,  as  a  compensation,  this 
gives  him  the  moral  advantage  and 
makes  him  the  monitor  over  the  con 
science  of  the  white  race.  Is  it  not  an 
anomaly  that  the  black  man,  who, 
throughout  recent  history,  has  not  been 
noted  for  the  higher  and  finer  moral 
qualities  and  feelings,  should  stand  as 
a  monitor  over  the  conscience  of  the 
white  race,  and  have  that  claim  al 
lowed?  The  Negro  says  to  the  white 
race:  "You  ought  to  enact  just  and 
righteous  laws  and  enforce  them  right 
eously."  He  says  further:  "You 
ought  to  apply  the  principles  of  Jesus, 
Whom  you  profess  to  follow,  to  your 
brother  in  black  the  same  as  to  your 
brother  in  white."  The  white  race  is 
forced  to  plead  guilty. 

It  is  not  contended  that  the  Negro  is 

inherently  better  than  the  white  race. 

If  he  represented  nine-tenths   of  the 

population  and  had  the  advantage  of 

[103] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

culture  and  opportunity  and  control 
of  the  machinery  of  public  and  prac 
tical  power,  it  is  not  declared,  al 
though  it  is  devoutly  hoped,  that  he 
would  be  better  in  his  treatment  of  the 
white  race  than  the  white  race  is  at 
present  in  its  treatment  of  him.  But 
circumstances  not  only  alter  cases; 
they  alter  character.  The  Negro  has 
the  character  and  quality  of  his  cir 
cumstances,  which  at  present  put  him 
in  the  position  of  moral  advantage 
whereby  he  makes  appeal  to  the  con 
science  of  the  nation  in  behalf  of  per 
sonal  and  public  rectitude. 

An  individual  or  a  nation  is  justly 
adjudged  cowardly  which  will  not  ex 
ercise  the  full  measure  of  its  power  to 
enforce  its  just  and  righteous  de 
mands.  It  is  unjust  to  the  wrongdoer 
to  permit  him  to  continue  unrestrained 
in  the  perpetration  of  evil  deeds.  But 
where  power  is  lacking,  resort  must  be 
had  to  the  higher  ethical  principles. 

It  may  be  said  without  blasphemy 
that  the  Negro  is  the  only  American 
[104] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

who,  as  a  class,  can  conscientiously 
utter  the  petition  in  Our  Lord's 
Prayer:  "Forgive  us  our  trespasses 
as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass 
against  us."  His  long-suffering  and 
non-resentful  nature  would  readily 
forgive  the  white  race  all  of  its  his 
torical  and  contemporary  trespasses, 
enormous  as  they  are,  if  it  would  now 
accord  him  the  consideration  and  hu 
man  treatment  which  the  law  of  hu 
man  charity  demands. 

Some  one  has  said:  "No  man  is 
great  unless  he  is  great  to  his  valet." 
No  American  statesman  can  attain 
transcendent  greatness  unless  it  rests 
upon  the  broad  principles  of  Right 
eousness  which  meet  the  approval  of 
all  of  the  people,  even  the  despised 
and  rejected  Negro. 

Negroes  all  over  this  nation  are 
aroused  as  they  have  never  been  be 
fore.  It  is  not  the  wild  hysterics  of 
the  hour,  but  a  determined  purpose 
that  this  country  shall  be  made  a  safe 
place  for  American  citizens  of  what- 
[105] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

ever  color  in  which  to  live  and  work 
and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  happiness. 
Ten  thousand  speechless  men  and 
women  marched  in  silent  array  down 
Fifth  Avenue  in  New  York  City  as  a 
spectral  demonstration  against  the 
wrongs  and  cruelties  heaped  upon  the 
race.  Negro  women  all  over  the  na 
tion  have  appointed  a  day  of  prayer 
in  order  that  Righteousness  may  be 
done  to  this  people.  The  weaker  sex 
of  the  weaker  race  are  praying  that 
God  may  invoke  the  great  American 
conscience  as  the  instrument  of  His 
will  to  promote  the  cause  of  human 
freedom  at  home  and  abroad. 

At  one  of  the  six  o'clock  prayer 
meetings  in  the  city  of  Washington, 
two  thousand  humble  women  snatched 
the  early  hours  of  the  morning  before 
going  to  their  daily  tasks  to  resort  to 
the  house  of  prayer.  They  literally 
performed  unto  the  Lord  the  burden 
of  their  prayer  and  song,  "Steal  Away 
to  Jesus."  There  was  not  a  note  of 
bitterness  or  denunciation  through- 
[106] 


RIGHTEOUSNESS 

out  the  session  of  prayer.  They 
prayed  as  their  mothers  prayed  in  the 
darker  days  gone  by,  that  God  would 
deliver  the  race.  May  it  not  be  that 
these  despised  and  rejected  daughters 
of  a  despised  and  rejected  race  shall 
yet  lead  the  world  to  its  knees  in  ac 
knowledgment  of  some  controlling 
power  outside  of  the  machinations  of 
man?  To  one  sitting  there,  listening 
in  reverent  silence  to  these  two  thou 
sand  voices  as  they  sang, — 

"On  Christ,  the  Solid  Rock,  I  stand, 
All  other  ground  is  sinking  sand — " 

there  could  not  but  come  the  thought 
of  this  ungodly  war  which  is  now  con 
vulsing  the  world — a  war  in  which 
Christian  hands  are  dyed  in  Christian 
blood.  It  must  cause  the  Prince  of 
Peace  to  groan  as  in  His  dying  agony 
when  He  gave  up  the  Ghost  on  the 
Cross.  The  professed  followers  of 
the  Meek  and  Lowly  One,  with  heathen 
heart,  are  putting  their  trust  in  reek 
ing  tube  and  iron  shard.  As  God  uses 
[107] 


AN  APPEAL  TO  CONSCIENCE 

the  humbler  things  of  life  to  confound 
the  mighty,  it  may  be  that  these  help 
less  victims  of  cruelty  and  outrage 
shall  bring  an  apostate  world  back  to 
God.  The  Negro's  helpless  position 
may  yet  bring  America  to  a  realizing 
sense  that  Righteousness  exalteth  a  na 
tion,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any 
people. 


THE   END 


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[108] 


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